Happy Boxing Day!

Today is Boxing Day, a holiday you may or may not be familiar with, depending on where you live. Boxing Day is celebrated on December 26th in Great Britain and in closely-connected countries like Australia, New Zealand, Canada, etc.

In Great Britain, Boxing Day is also St. Stephen’s Day, a day to commemorate the first Christian martyr.

The name “Boxing Day” comes from the tradition of giving boxed gifts to servants and the poor on St. Stephen’s Day. Traditionally, servants would work on the 25th, so they would be given the 26th off to visit their own family and friends. They would also be given boxes containing gifts, such as cast-off clothing they could sell or make over (fabric was expensive), food like preserved fruit, and perhaps a few coins.

Also, churches collected money in alms-boxes during the season and distributed it to the needy on this day.

They spent the rest of the afternoon preparing for St. Stephen’s Day, or Boxing Day. The servants would enjoy a rare day off, and Mr. Paley would be opening the church’s alms box and distributing donations given in the preceding months to his poorest parishioners. The Brockwell family had already taken baskets to some villagers, but now they assembled gifts for their own servants and tenants, filling wooden boxes with fabric, gloves, foodstuffs, and always-welcome coins.”

—An Ivy Hill Christmas by Julie Klassen

In the past, Boxing Day was also a traditional day for fox hunting and Christmas Pantomimes. Boxing Day is still observed in Britain, but from what I understand, it is now a day for shopping sales, eating leftovers with friends and family, and watching sports or Christmas movies.

Are you familiar with Boxing Day? How will you spend this December 26th?