# Ah! Boxing Day! **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 26, 2008, 11:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ah-boxing-day/478721 "2008-12-26T11:46:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Annie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/858c86/32.png) [@Annie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2008, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ah-boxing-day/478721/21 "2008-12-26T23:00:27Z")
It snowed all week. It stopped snowing for the 24 hours of the 25th, allowing me to get to the clan gathering and return home. Snow started again during the night, continues as I type, and dissuades me from trudging up to the Future Shop to see if they have any of those half price digital frames left. I will have to stay home and drink the beverages that were intended to be gifts for the hostesses of parties I could not get to. Darn. In the spirit of the day, I found a box in which to transport my old DVD player to a clansman whose A/V gear has been commandeered by his clanstoddler, who watches _Max and Ruby_ 18 hours a day. I expect pie in compensation ---
**Author:** ![lynxie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e99b99/32.png) [@lynxie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lynxie)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2008, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ah-boxing-day/478721/22 "2008-12-27T01:22:52Z")
Ah, Boxing Day. The holiday that has no reason (that anyone remembers) so there is nowhere you need to go, nothing to celebrate and no one you need to please… except yourself. Lovely day. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2008, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ah-boxing-day/478721/23 "2008-12-27T17:06:08Z")
And, just to round things out, the score in the opening game yesterday was Canada 8, Czech Republic 1. [Canada romps in opener](http://www.globesports.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20081226.wsptcanada26/GSStory/GlobeSportsHockey/home) ---
**Author:** ![detop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bcef8e/32.png) [@detop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/detop)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2008, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ah-boxing-day/478721/24 "2008-12-27T19:55:17Z")
Like you expected any other kind of result 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Annie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/858c86/32.png) [@Annie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2008, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ah-boxing-day/478721/25 "2008-12-27T20:15:34Z")
Hey, Czech Rep. ain’t no slouches. It’s not like whipping Switzerland ---
**Author:** ![Cunctator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2008, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ah-boxing-day/478721/26 "2008-12-28T05:18:21Z")
> [@C3](#): > > According to my husband, the entire purpose of Boxing Day is to watch the Melbourne Cricket Grounds Boxing Day test. Not entire. You alternate between the cricket and the yachting. ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2008, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ah-boxing-day/478721/27 "2008-12-28T18:28:25Z")
> [@lynxie](#): > > Ah, Boxing Day. The holiday that has no reason (that anyone remembers) Until my early twenties I would look and English-language calenders and always thought it was a day where they had a boxing (the sport) championship–sort of like Superbowl Day. Then I asked a Canadian friend, and she said it ostensibly was a day for putting all the old things that are replaced by the new one you received on Christmas into boxes. But we surmised that it probably is just to ensure that Christmas is extended. We could use it in the U.S., especially this year, because many people had to work the day after Thanksgiving, as well as the day after Christmas, thereby ruining a four-day weekend. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2008, 7:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ah-boxing-day/478721/28 "2008-12-31T07:03:38Z")
**Dex** did a Staff Report which gives a different explanation for the name of the holiday: [What’s the Origin of the British Holiday Custom Boxing Day?](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1721/whats-the-origin-of-the-british-holiday-custom-boxing-day): > [@](#): > > Both the Morris’ book, Dictionary of Word and Phrase Origins, and Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase & Fable are agreed: The Christmas box was a gift box given to a faithful employees (servants, mainly) on the day after Christmas. In earlier times, almsboxes were placed in churches for casual offerings. They were opened on Christmas Day and the contents, called the “dole of the Christmas box” or the “box money” were distributed the next day by the parish priest to the needy families. Hence, the day after Christmas became the day for the Christmas Box or Boxing Day, a gratuity for the servants. See also the Snopes report: [Boxing Day](http://www.snopes.com/holidays/christmas/boxingday.asp) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ah-boxing-day/478721.md?page=1)