How Boxing Day differs from Black Friday
It's a clearance sale, and that's the whole difference. Black Friday is planned months ahead with stock bought in for it, and every shop moves on the same Friday. Whatever didn't sell gets cleared after Christmas: end-of-line models, dropped covers, showroom floor stock, sizes that sold badly.
So your choice is narrower and luck counts for more. In November you can usually find the exact model and size you'd shortlisted. Between Christmas and New Year you're shopping what's left, and whatever turns up is a one-off with nothing behind it.
Does it end on the 26th?
No. Boxing Day turns into the January mattress sales, often with the same stock and the same cuts behind a new banner, and by mid-January the mix tilts from clearance to current ranges. Knowing that should slow you down instead of speeding you up. Nothing you see on the 26th vanishes on the 27th unless the last one in your size has gone.
Boxing Day 2026 falls on Saturday 26 December
Your bank holiday doesn't. Christmas Day comes on a Friday that year, which pushes the Boxing Day holiday to Monday 28 December. That changes showroom hours and delivery slots. Prices don't move for it, but it's the sort of thing to check before you drive anywhere.
We watch this one from 17 December to 5 January, because the post-Christmas sale isn't a single day. Shops open early, run through the 26th, then carry on into the New Year under a new name. Our wider calendar shows how it sits against the rest of the year.
Does the sale start before Christmas?
For a lot of retailers, yes. They begin marking down in the week before Christmas. Order a mattress on the 20th and it can't reach you by the 25th anyway, so there's nothing left to protect. Adverts and the online sale both start on the 26th.
Range is what separates the pre-Christmas markdown from the Boxing Day one. More of the catalogue goes into the sale after Christmas than before it. By then you're also shopping next to everyone else who waited.
Who runs a Boxing Day sale
Showroom chains and department stores lead it, and direct brands join in with less to set them apart. The table above tracks them all. Bensons for Beds Boxing Day 2026 codes, once Bensons publishes any, appear in it alongside everyone else's, and each row links to that retailer's promo codes page if they have one.
Same direct-brand caveat here as anywhere. Which?'s price check caught several of them holding mattresses at a sale price for weeks on end. In 2024 the CMA's principles put it this way: a crossed-out figure has to have been charged for long enough beforehand to count. Brands that never come off sale can't meet that on 26 December any better than they do in June.
Buy on the 26th or hold for January?
Buy on the 26th if the exact mattress you want is in front of you, and hold only if it isn't. Stock settles it, not the date. Clearance and floor models exist in ones. Once yours sells, January has nothing behind it. Where a current range has been marked for the window, its cut normally lasts until the window shuts, so there's nothing to gain by rushing one of those.
One group this page can't help. If you're replacing a mattress for someone arriving over Christmas, I'd buy before the sale opens and pay the difference. A cheaper bed booked between Christmas and New Year can still be a bed that arrives after your visitor has gone home.
What should you check on a post-Christmas deal?
Start with what happens if you've got it wrong. Return windows and sleep trials run from delivery, so a bed arriving on 12 January gives you until spring to change your mind. A bed collected off a showroom floor on the 26th may be sold as seen, with no trial at all. Clearance stock is where that difference bites.
After that, the ordinary checks. Whether your code excludes clearance, which most do. Whether the mattress is a current model or a run-out, since a dropped model can be excellent value but can't be matched later if you ever need a second one. And your delivery date in writing, not the estimate on the product page.
Why some rows sit empty
Until a retailer announces something, its row here stays empty. Dates, our price records and the full method are written up once on the calendar page.
Sources
- GOV.UK, UK bank holidays, including the substitute day that follows a weekend Boxing Day. https://www.gov.uk/bank-holidays
- Which?, February 2024 investigation into how long mattress offers run. https://www.which.co.uk/news/article/which-urges-popular-mattress-companies-to-play-by-the-rules-aeIV45u7pHws
- CMA, the duration requirement in its pricing principles for online mattress sellers, published 1 August 2024 and temporarily withdrawn on 30 July 2026 while the CMA considers a High Court judgment. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/discount-and-reference-pricing-principles-selling-mattresses-online
