In the United States, December 26 is just the day after Christmas. Lots of people hit the stores in search of big sales, while others stay in to play with new toys and recover from their Christmas food coma. But in Great Britain, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, and some other countries that were colonized by the British, the day is a holiday called Boxing Day. Contrary to what the name might suggest to Americans, it’s not a day for watching old highlights of Muhammad Ali. Instead, the holiday was founded on the premise of wealthier families giving gifts to those less fortunate. Boxing Day falls on the day after Christmas each year, unless the 26th is on a weekend day, in which case the public holiday (the official observation for the day off work) can be pushed to December 27 or 28.
The name of the holiday has a few possible origin stories. They’re all plausible and contribute to the overall meaning and celebration of Boxing Day, but there are different interpretations of how the name originally came to be. The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) purports the phrase was coined in 1743 to give name to the tradition of tradespeople and employees receiving a Christmas box (which was traditionally a sum of money) from their employers. They would have been busy working on Christmas Day for their wealthier employers, so the Christmas boxes were traditionally distributed on December 26 — hence the holiday’s name.
According to the BBC, the term “Boxing Day” was popularized during the reign of Queen Victoria (1837 to 1901), when the still-unofficial holiday was practiced by richer families boxing up gifts the day after Christmas and handing them out to the poor. It was also common at that time for wealthy families to give their servants a box of gifts and have them take the day off, so they could share the gratuities with their families (supporting the OED etymology).
Boxing Day was made an official bank holiday in both England and Wales in 1871; it wasn’t until 1974 that Scotland followed suit. While literal Christmas boxes given out by rich employers aren’t common anymore, lots of people practice the spirit of the holiday by giving back money, gifts, or their time in support of those less fortunate each Boxing Day. However, we won’t judge if you spend part of your Boxing Day eating leftovers and watching movies on the sofa.
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