To my Canadian, Brit and Aussie friends and whomever else in the world celebrates today, I hope y'all had a good one.

I first learned about Boxing Day living in Hong Kong from 1977-1980. Those of you not familiar with the holiday, Google it. It's a cool day.

Thanks.

AFAIK, no one really knows the true origin of the name 'Boxing Day'. Lots of favourite pet theories, though.

I remember being told in Hong Kong that it had something to do with getting rid of the boxes that the Christmas presents came in. I also heard that it may have had something to do with the servants and the gifts they were given by the "upstairs" folks. Sound familiar to you?

I posted this on another thread: Growing up in the once-British colony of South Africa, our custom on Boxing Day was to give gifts to garbage collectors, postal workers, coal delivery men, etc. Every December 26th, these folks would go door to door, collecting gifts in the neighborhoods where they worked throughout the year.

Kinda connects with the "downstairs" help, though the idea of the folks going door to door seeking the "gifts" seems more like Halloween, or even, as discussed in another thread, the practice of kids in NYC going door to door seeking "gifts" at Thanksgiving.

Customs and traditions are interesting. There's a new thread there somewhere.

Afaik the tradition goes back to giving a "Christmas box" to the hired help who had to work on Christmas day. As it was a statutory holiday, boxing day became a useful day for retailers to get rid of their excess Christmas stock. The Boxing Day sale was invented. In recent years retailers plan on bringing in special stock for a giant sale on Boxing Day. Some even go so far as to extend the "sales event" for a week. At least in Canada, it's rather like placing Black Friday between Christmas and New Year.

Do you guys know you made me Google AFAIK? How out of touch am I? Yikes. I still have a flip cell phone.

So, like Christmas, Boxing Day has become a commercial payday for retailers. Not sure if that's good or bad, negative or positive. It does seem a shame to lose the meaning of traditions though.

Sure, I've heard those. There are various theories (from Wikipedia):

It is believed to be in reference to the Alms Box placed in places of worship to collect donations to the poor.

It may come from a custom in the late Roman/early Christian era, wherein metal boxes placed outside churches were used to collect special offerings tied to the Feast of Saint Stephen, which in the Western Church falls on the same day as Boxing Day.

In Britain, it was a custom for tradesmen to collect "Christmas boxes" of money or presents on the first weekday after Christmas as thanks for good service throughout the year. This is mentioned in Samuel Pepys' diary entry for 19 December 1663.

This custom is linked to an older English tradition: since they would have to wait on their masters on Christmas Day, the servants of the wealthy were allowed the next day to visit their families. The employers would give each servant a box to take home containing gifts and bonuses, and maybe sometimes leftover food.

I always figured it was this;

http://www.hirezfox.com/km/co/d/20081226.html