That being the case I can assure you it was still celebrated - have you got the relevant dates for England ?
If you go back to the dates you quoted I suspect not only bus but train services would be operating in England on Christmas Day.
It might explain why some trains always seem to operate on Boxing Day in Scotland.
Boxing Day became a holiday in England due to an Act in 1871. It was not deemed necessary to call Christmas Day a holiday as it was already considered a day of rest like Sunday.
I'm not making excuses for a lack of service in England. The last time I got a bus on Christmas Day was in 1986, the first Christmas after deregulation, when I got a bus from Rochdale to Manchester and back, and I was the only passenger each way. AFAIK buses haven't run in Greater Manchester since then, apart from some airport services.
It doesn't matter to me this year as I will be in Groningen and I will be getting a train across the border into German to Leer on Sunday.
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I've just spent the day on Arriva trains going from Groningen to Leer and Veendam, yes it is Christmas Day, and yes, I've been on trains.
Of course, we are talking about the Netherlands and Germany. I was going to accept that they have trains running because Christmas isn't THAT big a deal compared to the UK, but it turns out that hardly anything that normally opens on a Sunday is open. So the UK can't even use that excuse. In fact the only things that I can find that are open are shops in rail stations and the odd restaurant. Even most restaurants (including fast food chains such as Subway and McDonalds) are closed.
As for the trains, they seem pretty busy. The Intercity trains that I saw this afternoon leaving Groningen were packed with standing room only. Local buses in Groningen seem fairly busy and middle distance buses (Qliners) to regional towns were very busy.