# Brit Dopers...Boxing Day question

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brit-dopers-boxing-day-question/826712>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [December 26, 2018, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brit-dopers-boxing-day-question/826712 "2018-12-26T02:26:52Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Enola\_Gay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/3ab097/32.png) [@Enola\_Gay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enola_Gay)\
**Post date:** [December 29, 2018, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brit-dopers-boxing-day-question/826712/21 "2018-12-29T02:21:01Z")

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> [@MrDibble](#):
>
> Money and mince pies, in our case.

MrDibble, I have always appreciated your international charm, but your mention of ‘mince pies’ just launches you into the stratosphere of international coolness 🆒

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**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 29, 2018, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brit-dopers-boxing-day-question/826712/22 "2018-12-29T04:39:57Z")

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{{sigh}}

We had a suet shortage in Piper-land this Christmas, so no home-made Piper mince pies, so no international coolness.

Truly, butterfly wings. ☹

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**Author:** ![SanVito](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sanvito/32/2805_2.png) [@SanVito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SanVito)\
**Post date:** [January 7, 2019, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brit-dopers-boxing-day-question/826712/23 "2019-01-07T17:10:36Z")

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> [@Aspidistra](#):
>
> I was a paper girl in Edinburgh in the early '80s and I …think?..maybe?..I got some Christmas tips. Not enough to make a lasting impression on me obviously! But I don’t recall it being linked to Boxing Day specifically (and there were houses that only got the weekend paper - obviously those ones would have had to just go for whatever day was closest) and I’m quite sure it was only a few people, if that. But of course a custom that includes the milkman and the paper kids is really geared at _delivery people_, not at government employees, as such. Workers in service occupations.
> 
> These days the number one association for Boxing Day is of course - CRICKET!

Oh, giving extra tips to people who come to the house was definitely a thing when I was growing up (binmen, posties, cleaner), but not on boxing day - it’s a bank holiday, so they obviously aren’t working! We’d pay them whichever day they came around _before_ Christmas. I never linked it to Boxing Day, but maybe it was a thing way back when.

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**Author:** ![Meurglys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/258eb7/32.png) [@Meurglys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meurglys)\
**Post date:** [January 8, 2019, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brit-dopers-boxing-day-question/826712/24 "2019-01-08T17:04:54Z")

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In Scotland Boxing Day wasn’t a Bank Holiday until 1974; for many people it was a normal working day.

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