To all my friends in Canada, the UK, Australia and New Zealand, Happy Boxing Day 2017! To my friends in the US and elsewhere – we need Boxing Day!
Boxing Day is a “bank holiday” in the countries who celebrate it meaning that it is an official day off. Personally, I LOVE the idea of the day after Christmas being an official holiday because I don't know about you but I almost always need a day to recover from Christmas! Plus I think it is so nice to have a day to see family and friends whom you didn't get to see on the actual day of Christmas – Boxing Day adds that nice extension in a way that I think feels less pressured.
Boxing Day was traditionally the day that servants received their Christmas gifts from the masters of the estates they served and were given the day off with no obligations, something that was rare for people in those positions. As keeping staff like that became less common, Boxing Day was kept as holiday and today it is widely enjoyed as a day for sports, visiting friends, continuing to feast on Christmas delicacies and otherwise having a day off to recover from Christmas.
There are, of course, lots of stories about how Boxing Day started. I wanted to do some digging and came across this fun video that explains more:
What do you say, peeps? Do we need Boxing Day here in the US? Personally, I love the idea and I might just have to add it to my list of holidays for the future. Today, however, let's all enjoy Boxing Day 2017!
