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?
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Boxing Day will begin the Christmas celebration for our family as our Texas kids are driving to Missouri today to spend a week here. We have a granddaughter’s Sweet 16 and my husband’s 70th birthday to celebrate while everyone is here too! Since we have several teachers in our family, we’ve often celebrated during the week between Christmas and New Year’s. Happy Boxing Day to you and yours, Julie!
Yes, I’ve known about Boxing Day from reading so much British historical fiction, especially regency. I didn’t realize St. Stephen’s Day is the same day.
I am fortunate to spend Christmas with my daughter and family – first time since they live on the west coast and usually come east, where I live. Today we plan to bake cookies and play games my grandson received for Christmas. Looking forward to spending this Christmas week together. Happy Boxing Day to you!
Love that you explained the Boxing Day tradition, Julie. As a child I was totally stumped by the holiday and was sure it was a holiday for boxers…;-0. Thankfully as I read more British history I realized my mistake. And Downton Abbey did help to clarify things a bit. Happy New Year and hope you had a fun Boxing Day.