Whitby Lion's Boxing Day Dip

Whitby Lion’s Boxing Day Dip is back for 2026! Are you crazy or brave enough to run into the North Sea on Boxing Day for charity? This year will also be the club’s 51^st Boxing Day Dip, the club plans to celebrate this milestone and the £100,000’s our dippers have raised for local and national charities over the last fifty years.

It has become somewhat of a tradition in our beautiful little seaside town to enjoy a rather refreshing dip in the North Sea on Boxing Day morning. It’s certainly a unique and memorable experience that will raise lots of money for local charities. Fancy dress is a must, for many dippers, with prizes available for the best! In previous years, we have had some fantastic costumes such as dinosaurs, Batman and Robin, Christmas trees and even a team of traffic cones and a fancy dress wedding proposal! 

Entry costs £10 per person, plus ticket purchase fees; this will be paid direct to Whitby Lion’s. To enter and purchase your ticket online please click on "Whitby Lion's Boxing Day Dip Tickets" button.

This fun and frantic event has now been running over the last 50 years, originally seeing numbers soar from a handful of brave local citizens to over 300 eager individuals travelling from far and wide, desperate to run into the wintery ice-cold waves of the North Sea. Although as you’d expect, you are more likely to see the big numbers witnessing the excitement from the side-lines. The Boxing Day has become a traditional family friendly event with many families meeting up after Christmas Day to spending a lovely Boxing Day morning together.

Last year’s 2025 dip was our biggest ever with an amazing 329 dippers taking part, with the event raising an incredible £4,700.00 for the club! Which will support their work helping local organisations and charities. There was also amazing support from the local community, with at least a thousand spectators supporting the event and joining in with the fun. The dippers themselves would have raised many thousands of pounds for various local and national charities. During our 2019 dip, we also featured on national television with BBC Breakfast filming live at the event on Boxing Day morning. We hope for another equally successful event this year, thank you to our local community who generously support ourselves, our dippers and the many charities involved. Keep an eye out for our festive street collectors who will be giving away a chocolate sweet for every donation!

Boxing Day Dip 2026 Tickets (Entry Fee)

Entry Fee Cost: £10 per person plus ticket purchase fees.

All dippers MUST be registered to take part as our insurance does not cover anyone who is not registered.

Tickets Online: Click on the “Boxing Day Dip Tickets” button to purchase your ticket via Ticket Tailor. Tickets can be purchased using either a credit or debit card:

In Person: Please visit The Whitby Pet Shop at 15 Station Square, Whitby, YO21 1DU to purchase your ticket by cash. Please visit their Facebook page for their location details: www.facebook.com/whitbypetshop.

On the day: Please visit our registration tent which will be located next to the Whitby Bandstand on Pier Road, Whitby, North Yorkshire, YO21 3PU opposite the RNLI Museum. Tickets can be purchased using either a credit or debit card or by cash. (Please see Google Map below).

Registration

After purchasing your ticket, all ticket holders need to register on the day at our Registration Tent. This ensures we know how many people are doing the dip for safety reasons and to cover you for insurance purposes.

Registration opens at 9:30 AM on Boxing Day morning at our Registration Tent which will be located next to the Whitby Bandstand on Pier Road, Whitby, North Yorkshire, YO21 3PU opposite the RNLI Museum. (Please see Google Map below).

In order for you to register your ticket, please bring the following:

Online Tickets via Ticket Tailor: Please bring either your electronic ticket (email or the Ticket Tailor App) or print your ticket. We will then scan your QR code in order to register you.

Whitby Pet Shop Tickets: Please bring your wrist band and the names of all ticket holders.

Sponsorship Form – You MUST purchase a ticket before you request a sponsor form. Please read through the below event details and then see the sponsorship form request form at the bottom of the page.

Fancy Dress

Everyone is welcome to come in fancy dress, we highly recommend it!

Prizes are awarded for the best dressed:

Adult Female

Adult Male

Under 16 – Female

Under 16 – Male

Team

If you are lucky enough to win a category, please give your contact details to a Lion’s club member and we will either give you your prize on the day or post it to you.

Event Timings

Registration Tent Opens – 9:30 AM

Fancy Dress Judging – 10:30 AM

Immediately after the Fancy Dress Judging – Everyone runs into the Sea

Sponsorship

Unlike previous years, participants will not be automatically given a sponsor form. Participants will fully be responsible for collecting and distributing their own sponsor money to their chosen charity.

If you require a sponsor form, please either visit The Whitby Pet Shop to pay the £10 ticket fee and collect a sponsor form in person or if you purchased your ticket online, please click on the "Sponsor Form Request" button below and we will email you one. Please note that only one sponsor form request can be be submitted per ticket purchased. If you require multiple sponsor forms for different people, please purchase additional tickets.

Whitby Lion’s will not collect everyone’s sponsorship money and then distribute it to your chosen charity, unlike previous years. This new method of running the event worked well over recent years, it means its easier for participants to enter the event and easier for the club to manage the dip.

Sponsor Form Request

Changing Facilities

Male and female changing facilities are located in the Whitby Bandstand. We recommend that dippers turn up in their fancy dress costume/clothes before the event. Please bring spare clothes with you so you can change into them after the dip. We recommend you a bring towel to dry yourself afterwards and a bag for your wet clothes. We highly recommend you do the dip in an old pair of trainers, as the wet sand can be very cold and there are rocks in the sea that can be dangerous.

Safety

Participants (Ticket Holders) understand that participating in the Whitby Boxing Day Dip (Event) is a potentially hazardous activity where they will be required during the course of the Event to enter the very cold North Sea and can stay in the North Sea for a maximum of 15 minutes. All Participants should be prepared for the cold water and air temperature at this time of year. As it is a physically demanding activity, the Participants understand there is a risk of injury. Whitby District Lions Club (WDLC) does not conduct health or fitness checks on participants.

Participants agree not to participate unless they are medically and physically able, and that it is their responsibility to decide whether they are, and any child for whom they are responsible for is, medically and physically able to participate. If necessary, Participants should gain advice from their GP as to whether they are physically prepared to undertake the Event.

Once Participants have entered the North Sea, members from the Whitby Diving Club will form a perimeter around the Event area in the sea. Participants should in no circumstances go beyond this perimeter for your own safety. Once the 15 minute time limit is up a signal will be given by the diving team, and all Participants must leave the North Sea. Participants enter the water at their own risk and must not in any circumstance be fully submerged in the water. Participants understand that the Event is not a swimming event, it is a time limited, none swimming dip into the North Sea.

Participants who have chosen to participate in the Event in fancy dress costumes must be suitable for the event, given Participants will be entering open water their fancy dress costume must not restrict access for emergency first aid. WDLC reserves the right to void the Ticket if the Participants fancy dress costume is deemed not suitable for health and safety reasons. Participants taking part in the Event in INFLATABLE or MORPH SUITES fancy dress are discouraged and do so at their own risk.

All Participants take part in the Event at their own risk. In no event shall WDLC be liable to a Participant or spectator for any injuries or loss or damage to property whatsoever, including indirect, consequential or special losses howsoever caused in connection with any aspect of the Event. Nothing in the Event Terms & Conditions shall exclude or restrict WDLC liability for death or personal injury caused by its negligence, fraud or any other liability to the extent it cannot be excluded by law.

Under 16’s

Children aged 16 years and under must take part alongside a paying adult and be accompanied by an adult throughout the Event who will be responsible for their safety including taking part in the fancy dress competition, waiting on the beach before the Event starts, while taking part in the dip and after the Event. Schools, youth groups and clubs who take part must have adequate adult supervision.

Event Terms & Conditions

Please see our event terms & conditions by clicking on the button link below:

View Our Boxing Day Dip Event Terms & Conditions

Covid-19

If you have purchased a ticket to take part in the dip and you either have tested positive for Covid-19 or you have any symptoms, we would kindly ask you not to attend the event due to the risk of spreading the infection and health risks to other people.

If you are attending the event to watch the dip, again if you either have tested positive for Covid-19 or have any symptoms, we would kindly ask you not to attend the event due to the risk of spreading the infection and the health risk to other people.

For further information of Covid-19 symptoms can be found at: www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/symptoms/.

After The Event

Warm soup is provided free of charge to registered dippers to help them warm up after the event. In the days/weeks after the event you are responsible for collecting your own sponsorship money and sending to your chosen charity. Whitby Lion’s will not be able to do this for you.

Further Event Information

Toilets

No toilets are provided at this event. The nearest public toilets are located on Pier Road near the Whitby Bandstand which is short walk from the beach. Please note you will have pay in order to use these public toilets.

Car Parking

The nearest car parking available is either on West Cliff where there are two public car parks, on-street pay and display parking, or the Marina/Endeavour Wharf car parks which are located on Longborne Road opposite the Whitby Coop supermarket. Both of these public car parks are about a five to ten minute walk away from the event. Please see: (North Yorkshire Council – Parking Directory) for further details.

Watching The Whitby Boxing Day Dip

Everyone is welcome to come and watch our brave dippers enter the North Sea on Boxing Day morning, its become a Whitby tradition for fifty years. The best view to watch the proceedings are from the West Pier and the Battery Parade. You can watch from the West Cliff Beach (tide depending), but please keep away from our dippers before they run into the sea for safety reasons. You can also watch the dip from the West Cliff around the Whale Bones.

Our street collectors will be mingling with the crowd spreading Christmas cheer, any donation received means you can help yourself to a Christmas chocolate! Thank you for your donation in advance, all the money raised goes to the Whitby Lion’s who support our local community and charities.

Contact Details

If you require any further information please contact us via:

Email: whitby.lions.club@gmail.com

Tel: Please ask for Lion Brian Harrison – 01947 897249

For further and up to date information especially on the day itself please check out our Facebook, Twitter and Instagram account.