Boxing Day was traditionally the day when employees were given a Christmas box by their employers.
I still call ctips to the paper-boy, dustmen etc. their Chritsmas box although it is money and is not in a box.
It is traditionally the day when the pantomimes have their first performance and here in the country, the Boxing Day Meet is a big hunting day (possibly on its way out).
In places like the armed services and hospitals the day has elements of the Roman Saturnalia when slaves and masters changed places for a day. Officers will serve a meal to the other ranks. It was also the day for "hunting the wren", but that's another long story.

Sylvia, the comment about first performance of the pantos is really surprising. I've always thought they took place for weeks leading up to Christmas. So the original idea was they start the day after??

Here in Brussels, the most stores are open and people are in them, but they're not buying much. They're checking out the merchandise and waiting for the sales to begin after New Year's Day. The only things people are buying is stuff they know won't go on sale.
It's a unspoken Brussels tradition to walk up and down the main shopping strees (Ave. Louise, Blvd. Waterloo, for example) on New Year's Day checking out the shop windows. People dress fairly elegantly for the stroll, window shop (men and women window shopping in almost equal numbers) for an hour or so, then head off to a cafe for a few drinks.
However, the January sales--about 10% to 15% off--are no great shakes by American standards. Most U.S. bargain hunters would yawn and shrug at discounts that small. Only toward the end of the month do you start to see some real discounts, but by then most stuff is picked over.

Boxing Day...

"Whichever theory one chooses to back, the one thread common to all is the theme of one-way provision to those not inhabiting the same social level.

As mentioned previously, equals exchanged gifts on Christmas Day or before, but lessers (be they tradespeople, employees, servants, serfs, or the generic "poor") received their "boxes" on the day after.

It is to be noted that the social superiors did not receive anything back from those they played Lord Bountiful to: a gift in return would have been seen as a presumptuous act of laying claim to equality, the very thing Boxing Day was an entrenched bastion against.

Boxing Day was, after all, about preserving class lines."

Wouldn't want to blur those class lines in Britain, now would we!

Uncle Sam

It seems more likely to me that the term Boxing Day comes from the boxed lunches and dinners that the employers would have to make do with on the servant's day off. ( the day after christmas). The servants would have to work Christmas day. I can hear the upper crust accent complaining about the paid employees getting too many days off and having a " boxing" day.

Uncle Sam:

The phrase Boxing Day originates in a period when there were masters and servants on both sides of the Atlantic.

The main difference was, servants on the East side were paid and were free. Those on the West weren't.

"Wouldn't want to blur those class lines in Britain, now would we"

To use an English expression not suitable for the sweet little old lady that I am, "What a load of cobblers".
So, in American restaurants, the staff keep a little stock of gifts to exchange with customers who give them a tip. I of course expect the paper-boy to bring me a nice present.
If you get a Christmas bonus, presumably you spend a bit of it for wee gifts for the Chief Executive/

My my the Lords and Ladies of Britain are soooo sensitive!

LOL

Uncle Sam

Be careful Uncle Sam before you get your ears boxed!

LOL!

Uncle Sam

And FlannerUK...who do you think provided the servants you referenced in your quote...why it was the Brits!

For reference ask the man that wrote "Amazing Grace"....an ex Brit slave trader! If it wasn't for men of character like Wilberfoce you'd have never given it up!



"The main difference was, servants on the East side were paid and were free. Those on the West weren't."

I never thought this might turn into a political question. How interesting. Thanks all for shedding light on this subject.
I gave the housecleaner a Christmas Bonus a few days prior to the holiday. I didn't expect to receive anything back, but not because, "a gift in return would have been seen as a presumptuous act of laying claim to equality." She simply does an exceptional job and nothing says, ?job well done,? like cash. My boss had the same idea and I was very happy. I guess I?m just one of those Capitalistic Americans.

I'm just really glad I don't work for Jor. A Christmas box from him would just contain a load of extra paperwork to finish off while I was lolling around wasting valuable time on my "English" holiday.

"...the one thread common to all is the theme of one-way provision to those not inhabiting the same social level"

On which topic I can't resist posting this link to an old, and much-parodied, seasonal favourite:

http://www.victorianweb.org/history/poorlaw/poem.html

Hoping that the workhouse is one place none of us has to travel to (imagine the rants/raves/itineraries!)