Before sharing Boxing Day, I first want to share some photos from our Christmas Eve family traditions.
New PJ’s, lighting the Advent candles and singing carols.
Leaving Santa’s snack and the stockings
A Christmas movie served with hot chocolate and marshmallows.
Reading “Twas the Night Before Christmas” except this year the kids wanted to read it themselves!
Fast forward to Boxing Day (if you missed our Christmas Day, check it out here)
It appears than many of my blog readers don’t know about Boxing Day, so here you go:
(courtesy of Wikipedia)
Boxing day was traditionally a day the servants had a day off from their duties. Because of this the gentry would eat cold cuts and have a buffet style feast prepared by the servants in advance. In modern times many families will still follow this tradition by eating a family style buffet lunch, with cold cuts rather than a full cooked meal. It is a time for family, parlour games and sports in the UK.
The traditional recorded celebration of Boxing Day has long included giving money and other gifts to those who were needy and in service positions. The European tradition has been dated to the Middle Ages, but the exact origin is unknown and there are some claims that it goes back to the late Roman/early Christian era; metal boxes were placed outside churches used to collect special offerings tied to the
Feast of Saint Stephen.
In the United Kingdom it certainly became a custom of the nineteenth century Victorians for tradesmen to collect their “Christmas boxes” or gifts in return for good and reliable service throughout the year on the day after Christmas.
What Boxing Day means to our family:
Traditionally Boxing Day is the day you see the rest of your family, that you did not spend Christmas Day, where you eat even more food!
It is also the day for the big sales to begin.
As my husband is working on-call today, we have had a quiet day at home (NO WAY I was considering taking my 3 kids with me to the first day of the sales!). The kids got to spend time with their new gifts, we found places for MOST of the new gifts to be stored, and we ate left overs from Christmas Day.
I particularly enjoy leftovers on Boxing Day as the food still tastes great without the work to produce it all!
Some friends call round this evening and we had mince pies and shortbread.
So what did YOU do today?
Hello JanMary!
I love your christmas pictures – the athmosphere and the lightning is so beautiful. And your traditions will be a wonderful childhood memory.
We had wonderful sunny weather today, so we made a little walk in the afternoon. We enjoyed to slept in this morning and had a lazy day.
Beautiful pictures of your family! I love the “visit!”
I worked today. It was a quiet and peaceful day for the most part, but since my semester begins earlier than usual, I was trying to get caught up before it caught me off guard or backed up again. For once, the cats let me work!
Oh wow! Your photos are gorgeous! I spent the day finishing up a freebie kit and watching my kids play. It’s been too cold to go anywhere today.
If you want to pick up my Winterlicious kit swing by my blog https://ivorykeys74@blogspot.com
Thanks for the explanation of Boxing Day. I had always thought it was the day where you boxed up all the Christmas decorations, but ours usually don’t come down until a few days later so this makes so much more sense!
Thanks for sharing your lovely Christmas photos! The day after Christmas, we usually spend time with family that we didn’t see on Christmas day also! Which is exactly what we did today!!!
helo JanMary, This is great post! Thanks for sharing about Boxing day, I have always wondered about that..
Such great pictures! I, too, have always wondered about Boxing Day. I’ve spent the day doing laundry and playing games on the computer and with my son. We’ve all just been hanging out at home today. I love these kinds of days!
Thanks for letting me know something was going on with the comments on my blog. I’ve got someone looking into it.
Candle light does amazing things in photos! So nice!
Such nice pictures as always! I wish we called it Boxing Day here in America. Leftovers are just as good the next day. We were in another state with my husband’s family so we spent the morning with them and left for home about 2 pm.