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A petition calling for all shops to be closed on Boxing Day has surged past 200,000 signatures.
The online campaign, set up by Ian Lapworth, urges people to manage without shops on Boxing Day like we did “30 or 40 years ago” and “concentrate on making memories with the ones we love.”
A statement on the Change.Org petition’s website reads: "Whilst not everyone may see Christmas as a religious holiday, it should be respected as such and retail workers – who work so hard in the run up to the big day - given some decent family time to relax and enjoy the festivities like everyone else.
"Most retail workers are on the go up to Christmas Eve, then back on Boxing Day. Sometimes they have no choice.
“We managed 30 and 40 years ago... when shops were sometimes shut for a whole week. Let's get back to the way it was.”
Retail workers left comments on the site complaining that they are stretched by their hours at Christmas and unable to spend time with their families.
Sara Jane Holt said: “Families need to be together at Christmas, I worked 18 years in retail and it's very sad I had to work Christmas because I had to sell clothes.
“If I was a doctor and had to work Christmas, at least it would have been to save a life, but all I was doing was selling stuff cheap that didn't sell at full price.”
Paul Hayes wrote: “I only get Christmas day off, I have to go to bed early on Christmas Eve due to being exhausted from setting up sales for Boxing Day and I have to go to bed early Christmas day and avoid spending time with family or having any celebratory drinks as I have to then work all the way through new years' as well.”
Sally Sanders posted: “No-one died from not going to the Next sale.”
Mr Lapworth plans to send the petition to 10 Downing Street.
A spokeswoman for the Commons petitions committee said since the petition was not hosted on its website, it was unable to comment.
A similar petition launched on the government’s petitions website ahead of the festive season last year received an official response from the Government, which said: “We do not believe it is for central Government to tell businesses how to run their shops or how best to serve their customers. Therefore we are not proposing to ban shops from opening on Boxing Day."