And the Festivities Continue

I didn’t realize until just recently that there were doubts about the origin of “Boxing Day,” which is celebrated on the day after Christmas.

When I was a child, my British grandmother told me the name derived from the necessary household activities set aside for that occasion: boxing up all of one’s Christmas decorations and storing them away for another 12 months. Alternatively, notes Mystery Fanfare’s Janet Rudolph, “Boxing Day was a day off for servants and when they received a ‘Christmas Box’ [aka Christmas present] from the master. The servants would also go home to give ‘Christmas Boxes’ to their families.” Wikipedia adds that Boxing Day “originated as a holiday to give gifts to the poor”—which is quite the opposite of what many people now do on December 26, which is purchase gifts for themselves that they didn’t find under the tree on the 25th.

Whatever the source of its moniker, this holiday is an integral part of several crime novels, including Nicholas Blake’s Thou Shell of Death (1936) and Viveca Sten’s In Harm's Way (2018).

You’ll find more Boxing Day mysteries listed here.