December 26 does not have a special name here in the U.S. We just call it “The Day After Christmas.”
On this day we holiday-fatigued citizens wake up, survey our disheveled homes strewn with new toys, new games, new tech items and new clothes that probably aren’t the correct size. We step carefully across the rooms in our stocking feet, avoiding the random Legos, Hot Wheels and other small toy parts that were left over after the assembly of the “some assembly required” gifts.
We get dressed and then hop in our oversized SUVs and race to the stores to scramble for the 50 percent off, after-Christmas treasures that are piled on sale tables. We join crowds of other smart shoppers who have planned ahead in hopes of grabbing holiday wrapping paper, bows and boxes that we will store in our basements for the next 11 months. Then we drive home to collapse until New Year’s Eve celebrations.
In Great Britain, our mates across the pond refer to the day after Christmas as “Boxing Day.” This is the day when Her Majesty’s subjects leave their flats, hop in their Mini Coopers and motor to the shoppes to purchase Boxing Day Sale bargains. Then they go home and eat leftovers. It’s the same as us, but different.
Boxing Day is a national holiday in England and Ireland which means it’s a day off work for most people. It wasn’t always so as anyone who is familiar with the story, “A Christmas Carol” knows. Early on in the book the lowly clerk Bob Cratchit asks to be allowed off on Christmas Day. “Be here all the earlier the next day!” Scrooge snarls.
Boxing Day is also the day that by tradition some in the Royal family go fox hunting. In 2004, fox hunting with dogs was banned, and now British hunters get dressed up in red jackets and black riding helmets and Tally Ho to the sound of the hunting horn as they ride off following artificially laid trails to locate the elusive fox. The Royals continue to observe this new tradition.
Well, unless you are Prince Harry who has declined to participate in deference to his wife Meghan Markle’s views on wearing fur. Her Royal Highness is also mostly a vegan which means, rumor has it, that the newly wed Prince is being urged to reconsider his eating habits. Ah, uneasy wears the crown.
Here in the Colonies, my memories of Boxing Day are non-existent. That’s because I didn’t know there was such a day until I was a bit older. If someone would have mentioned Boxing Day to me back then, I would have assumed they were talking about playing in the large corrugated containers appliances came in. When the opportunity presented itself, I would spent several hours in the garage cutting doors and windows, then decorating and flying a spaceship/washing machine box across the galaxy.
Two of my younger brothers also observed their own version of Boxing Day. Whenever they felt the urge to celebrate, they would wrap sweatshirts around their fists and punch each other. My brothers were, as they might say in England, bonkers.
The exact origins of Boxing Day are unknown. Perhaps it comes from the gifts masters would give their servants on the day after Christmas. (The servants had to work on that day, of course.) Possibly the name comes from the boxes to collect money for the poor which were placed in churches and opened on Dec. 26.
The purpose and meaning of the British tradition of Boxing Day, it seems, is to celebrate with family and friends, to enjoy a day off work and to take the opportunity to help the poor. Hmm. Maybe we here in the Colonies should consider adding a new national holiday to our calendars.
