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?
