Christmas on Sunday is a special time for two distinct groups, Christians and newspaper comic strips. For Christians, it’s a day where you don’t just unwrap presents under the tree, but you also go to Church (unusual for Churches that don’t normally have a service on Christmas Day). Sunday comic strips are always bigger and more elaborate than dailies, so anytime Christmas Day falls on a Sunday, the Christmas Day strip will be bigger, more elaborate than a Christmas Day daily would be.
When I got the first Volume of IDW’s Tracy reprints, I noticed the 1932 Christmas Day strip was a Sunday strip. This piqued my interest since I already knew that it was a 1949 Christmas Sunday strip that revealed Tracy & Tess were married, and that a 1977 Christmas Sunday strip was Gould’s last regular strip. I wondered, how often does Christmas fall on a Sunday?The way to find out how often any day of the year falls on the same weekday is simple, if painstaking enough. With each year, a day in the year will fall on one weekday later than it did the year before, unless it’s a leap year, then the day will be two weekdays later. I discovered that there’s a consistent cycle to how often Christmas falls on Sunday (if this bores you, skip my reply where I discuss the cycle).
Christmas on Sunday is a special time for two distinct groups, Christians and newspaper comic strips. For Christians, it’s a day where you don’t just unwrap presents under the tree, but you also go to Church (unusual for Churches that don’t normally have a service on Christmas Day). Sunday comic strips are always bigger and more elaborate than dailies, so anytime Christmas Day falls on a Sunday, the Christmas Day strip will be bigger, more elaborate than a Christmas Day daily would be.
When I got the first Volume of IDW’s Tracy reprints, I noticed the 1932 Christmas Day strip was a Sunday strip. This piqued my interest since I already knew that it was a 1949 Christmas Sunday strip that revealed Tracy & Tess were married, and that a 1977 Christmas Sunday strip was Gould’s last regular strip. I wondered, how often does Christmas fall on a Sunday?The way to find out how often any day of the year falls on the same weekday is simple, if painstaking enough. With each year, a day in the year will fall on one weekday later than it did the year before, unless it’s a leap year, then the day will be two weekdays later. I discovered that there’s a consistent cycle to how often Christmas falls on Sunday (if this bores you, skip my reply where I discuss the cycle).
The first Tracy Christmas Sunday strip was 1932
33:M, 34:Tu, 35:W, 36:F, 37:Sa
The next Christmas Sunday was 1938
39:M, 40:W, 41:Th, 42:F, 43:Sa, 44:M, 45:Tu, 46:W, 47:Th, 48:Sa
The next Christmas Sunday was 1949
50:M, 51:Tu, 52:Th, 53:F, 54:Sa
The next Christmas Sunday was 1955
56:Tu, 57:W, 58:Th, 59:F, 60
The next Christmas Sunday was 1960
61:M, 62:Tu, 63:W, 64:F, 65:Sa
The next Christmas Sunday was 1966
67:M, 68:W, 69:Th, 70:F, 71:Sa, 72:M, 73:Tu, 74:W, 75:Th, 76:Sa
The next Christmas Sunday was 1977
tbc