The history of Boxing Day cricket at the MCG is a longer one. In 1892, the stadium hosted a Sheffield Shield match which started a tradition of Christmas period clashes between Victoria and New South Wales.
But the first international Boxing Day Test at the MCG was only held in 1950, and that Test against England actually started on December 22.
It was later still that the Boxing Day Test as we know it became a fixture of the summer cricket season.
In fact, only four more Tests were held on Boxing Day at the MCG before 1980 — in 1952, 1968, 1974 and 1975 (another three were held in Adelaide in 1967, 1972 and 1976).
It was the match against Clive Lloyd's West Indies in 1975 that showed what the Boxing Day Test could become.
A massive crowd of 85,596 people watched on the first day as Jeff Thomson and Dennis Lillee ripped into the highly rated side, taking nine wickets between them, including that of legend Viv Richards.
The West Indies made just 224 runs in their first innings and Australia replied with 485, which ultimately proved insurmountable.
However this highly successful Test wasn't to be the start of a tradition.
It was another five years before the next Boxing Day Test was held at the MCG, but we have been watching it annually in the stands and on our couches ever since (except in 1989, when the MCG hosted a one-day international against Sri Lanka instead).
"It's all the power of marketing," said Thomas Heenan, who teaches sport studies at Monash University.
Kerry Packer's Channel Nine got the broadcast rights to cricket in Australia in 1979. Dr Heenan said it was no coincidence the Boxing Day Test took off from there.
There's no doubt the Boxing Day Test can still draw a crowd. In fact, it was only in 2013 the MCG saw its biggest ever Test attendance with 91,112 people.
But that was an Ashes blockbuster. By comparison, the Boxing Day crowd last year for the Test against the West Indies was 53,389.
