A petition to ban shops from opening on Boxing Day has gained more than 160,000 signatures.

The change.org petition, created by baker Ian Lapworth last month, calls for the end of the commercialisation of Christmas.

"Let's get back to the way it was," Ian wrote on the petition page. "Forget making money for one day, let's concentrate on making more memories with the ones we love."

He added: "Shops, especially supermarkets, do not need to open on Boxing Day.

"Whilst not everyone may see Christmas as a religious holiday, it should be respected as such, and retail workers (who work so hard on 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."

Among the petitions' thousands of signatories are a large number of retail workers who have left messages of support.

Sarah Jane Holt from Bedford wrote: "Families need to be together at Xmas, worked 18 years in retail and it's very sad I had to work Xmas because I had to sell clothes. If I was a doctor and had to work Xmas it was to save a life, but all I was doing was selling stuff cheap that didn't sell at full price."

Hollie Lambton, from Nottinghamshire, said: "Every year I've been working, I've had to work Christmas Eve, Boxing Day, New Year's Eve and New Year's Day.

"I'm fed up of it. I have family traditions that I can't do anymore and I want things to go back the way they used to be."

The petition will be delivered to Prime Minister Theresa May now it has reached over the required 150,000 signatories.