Somebody please...

[Gregg]

Explain Boxing Day.

I just don't get it....

[MaritalArtist]

It's when employees receive their "Christmas box", a bonus or gift to show thanks for the year's work.

[Burnaby49]

I think it was the Victorian equivalent when servants got gifts. Christmas as we know it is almost entirely a Victorian creation. We can thank Prince Albert for the Christmas tree and Dickens for much of the rest.

[MaritalArtist]

That's not the only thing we have to thank Prince Albert for

[Pottapaug1938]

When I was a kid, my best friend's family celebrated "Grammy Bunch" on December 26th. That was the day when Mrs. Claus would go around and distribute the leftover presents....

[Chaos]

none of this tops festivus. so piss off.

[ArthurWankspittle]

I think it was the Victorian equivalent when servants got gifts. Christmas as we know it is almost entirely a Victorian creation. We can thank Prince Albert for the Christmas tree and Dickens for much of the rest.

We can thank the US for making Father Christmas's outfit red according to the stories.

[ManontheClaphamBus]

The modern definition dates back to the 1800s and there are two interpretations, of which Burnaby49 has given one.

The other was that staff in service (under the stairs) were given time off to visit their families and were given a box with gifts. bonuses and possibly some food left over from Christmas dinner.

[longdog]

As far as I'm concerned it marks the culinary peak of the festwintervaltide season. Cold turkey with sprout bubble and squeak.

Nomnomnomnomnom.

[ArthurWankspittle]

That's not the only thing we have to thank Prince Albert for

Inspiration for a Beyonce hit too.

[Gregg]

So what's with the crepe' paper hats and the dinner gags?

[SteveUK]

Explain Boxing Day.

I just don't get it....

Pub.

[MaritalArtist]

So what's with the crepe' paper hats and the dinner gags?

Don't know about the hats but the tradition is that Christmas cracker jokes are always terrible. This is because humour is subjective so some people will like a good joke and others not.
But a really bad joke brings people together as you all have a collective groan at how corny it is.

[grixit]

Boxing Day is the last remnant of what was once the Festival of Misrule, in which employers and servants switched places for a day and a "Lord of Misrule" presided over a lot of low comedy.

[mufc1959]

Explain Boxing Day.

I just don't get it....

Pub.

And football. Proper football, not that namby-pamby padded American game.

[MaritalArtist]

Explain Boxing Day.

I just don't get it....

Pub.

And football. Proper football, not that namby-pamby padded American game.

You mean hand egg.
https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/just ... -hand-egg/

[rosy]

As far as I'm concerned it marks the culinary peak of the festwintervaltide season. Cold turkey with sprout bubble and squeak.

Nomnomnomnomnom.

Ohhhh, yes. That was breakfast. Lunch was a buffet as my youngest son turned up with his newish gf; she's lovely and much nicer than his previous gf. Dinner tonight was more cheese and crackers and leftovers followed by mince pies and brandy butter and cream. Eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we diet.

[King Lud]

Nomnomnomnomnom.

Ohhhh, yes. That was breakfast. Lunch was a buffet as my youngest son turned up with his newish gf; she's lovely and much nicer than his previous gf. Dinner tonight was more cheese and crackers and leftovers followed by mince pies and brandy butter and cream. Eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we diet.
[/quote]


Tomorrow? January the second surely!! There’s a good week to go yet!

[eric]

Boxing Day is the last remnant of what was once the Festival of Misrule, in which employers and servants switched places for a day and a "Lord of Misrule" presided over a lot of low comedy.

In Newfoundland, in some of the communities, Boxing Day was also Mummer's night.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mummering
Although this is what Mummering is portrayed as:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8OPy7De3bk
there was a darker side to it:
For an absolutely hilarious B-grade horror film parody of mummering, watch the following:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wo3mitGVQVc
Note the authentic accents, liberal use of profanity, and the one scene in which a mummer is beaten to death with a bottle of Pusser's rum for the true Newfoundland experience.
edit to add the following:
For a scholarly reference on some of the less savory aspects of mummerring see the following:
https://www.shimajournal.org/issues/v3n ... -70-88.pdf

[Judge Roy Bean]

My family history includes a number of folks from north of the US border who endeavored to maintain any number of British societal traditions going back generations despite the fact they were embedded in what amounted to be "the wild west." On my grandmother's side of our clan, boxing day was an honored tradition which those of us on my father's side of the family were looked down on for not following. Apparently, the "servants" aspect of the legend had mutated somewhat; no one was wealthy enough to have servants, thus in our historical rendition of the custom, families who were better off spent some part of the day after the Christmas celebration gathering together their "excess" in boxes and taking it to more needy families they knew or to the church establishment who would arrange for the delivery of it to those who were less well off. Consider that this legend comes from a time not too removed from the settlements of pioneers in the 1800's and it may provide some sense of how such things can be interpreted and affected by family lore.