Everton have stopped the rot on the road after second-half goals from Kevin Mirallas and Romelu Lukaku secured a vital 2-0 victory over bogeyteam Leicester City.
The Belgian forwards' strikes ended a run on five matches without a win over the defending Premier League champions, and handed Ronald Koeman's Toffees side a second triumph in the past three matches.
Leicester, meanwhile, are now staring down the face of a relegation battle following their ninth league defeat of the campaign, though Claudio Ranieri's men were missing five key personnel from their usual starting lineup due to suspension and tiredness.
1998 - Leicester haven't won a Premier League Boxing Day match since beating Sheffield Wednesday 1-0 in 1998 (D1 L5). Humbug.
The first 45 minutes was, for lack of a better word, torturous. With both sides only picking up two wins from their past 12 league outings, confidence was certainly at a premium - and it showed.
Daniel Amartey, fresh from his first goal for Leicester against Stoke late time out, drew a routine stop from Joel Robles after a neat one-two with Shinji Okazaki but, that effort aside, neither goalkeeper was called upon for the entirety of the half.
Demarai Gray flashed a low drive wide of the upright from a Leicester counter attack, but a lack of end product from the hosts was leaving the home faithful a tad frustrated, despite their greater glut of forward forways.
Everton, by contrast, were struggling even more - Ramiro Funes Mori's glanced header over bar two minutes before half-time signalling just how turgid they had been in the attacking third themselves.
Mirallas was agonisingly close to diverting Leighton Baines' low shot into the net after a decent passage of play right across the Leicester penalty area on the stroke of half-time, but both sides were clearly bereft of a clinical touch to end any decent attacking moves.
Islam Slimani and Gray flashed efforts the wrong side of the upright as the second half commenced, and their profligacy was seized upon as Everton snatched an unlikely opener.
3 - Kevin Mirallas has scored in each of his last three Premier League appearances against Leicester. Thorn.
It was a goal fashioned out of the Tony Pulis handbook. A long punt upfield from Robles caught out Wes Morgan and Marcin Wasilewski, Mirallas darted unbetween the two centre backs and, after giving Kasper Schmeichel the eys, scuffed his shot into the opposite corner via a deflection of Wasilewski.
Claudio Ranieri threw n Riyad Mahrez and Leonardo Ulloa to try and salvage something from the match, and the latter almost drew Leicester level with his first touch. The striker, though, contrived to nod straight into the arms of Robles from Danny Simpson's cross.
Substitute Tom Davies arced an effort wide of the post after Leicester had invited him on, while Ulloa was aghast after none of his team mates gambled on a knockdown from the towering forward in the area from Mahrez's centre.
Idrissa Gana Gueye then, somehow, contrived to fire over the bar unmarked from three yards out from Romelu Lukaku's low cross while, down the other end, Mahrez saw a shot blocked after dancing his way through Everton's midfield.
With Leicester pushing for an equaliser, gaps began to appear at the back and Lukaku profited to wrap up the three points as the match entered its 90th minute.
Another long ball forward saw the Belgium international outmuscle Morgan for the loose ball and, after jinking inside Wasilewski and Schmeichel in the box, stroked home to the delight of the travelling support to secure a massive win for Koeman and his charges.
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