Boxing Day
St. Stephen’s Day • First Night of Kwanzaa (Unity)
A Day for Snowball Fights, Making Forts, and Showing Off New Toys
About Boxing Day
Boxing Day is the ultimate day of unstructured fun. The wrapping paper has been recycled, the fridge is packed with leftovers, the house is (possibly) back in order, and now it’s time to play! Spend an afternoon testing out yesterday’s presents, building indoor pillow forts, sledding, or hitting post-Christmas sales. Boxing Day is about letting loose and enjoying yourself. While the name might suggest a day for pugilists, Boxing Day’s origins come from the British tradition of giving boxes of goods or money to servants and the poor. We happily borrow that spirit of generosity (while rejecting its classist history). Whatever the activity, the emphasis is on keeping things light, joyful, and spontaneous. It’s playtime everywhere as we linger in the warm afterglow of yesterday’s big event.
Ways to observe
(A) Low effort
Spend the day lounging in your pajamas, sipping hot cocoa, and flipping through a new book or watching a holiday special.
(B) Recommended
Take the family for a Boxing Day outing: visit a local park or skating rink for some fresh air, then stop by a favorite café or bakery for a cozy treat. If you’re feeling charitable, consider bringing along a box of goodies to share with someone in need or a neighbor who could use a pick-me-up.
(C) High effort
Host a post-Christmas play extravaganza! Create an elaborate indoor obstacle course for the kids using leftover gift boxes and wrapping paper tubes, or organize a family tournament with board games, video games, or even a snowball fight (weather permitting).
Inspiration
As a kid, the day after Christmas was every bit as good as Christmas itself. It was a whole day of playing with new toys, raiding leftovers, and running wild with the neighborhood kids and their new toys. Not much has changed, though we recently added a new tradition to the mix. During the COVID pandemic, my daughter and I built a fort out of the cardboard boxes left over from unwrapping Christmas gifts. (COVID was miserable, and we coped by going overboard with gifting.) Playing with new presents inside a box fort is my top activity for the day. Our friends in the UK do the day properly. Boxing Day began in Victorian England as a time when the wealthy boxed up goods and money to give to servants and the poor. It’s evolved
Yuletide (12 Days of Christmas) into a day of sports, countryside walks, and riotous sales. And behind it all is St. Stephen, the first Christian martyr, whose feast day falls on December 26. Known for his generosity and compassion, Stephen reminds us that this joyful lull is also a moment to give back. So whether you’re building forts or reclining into a second helping of pie, let at least one part of today be about sharing your abundance with someone who needs it.
Adornments
Watch
Babes in Toyland (1939)
Laurel and Hardy bumble through a candy-colored land of nursery rhyme characters, where an evil landlord threatens to evict Little Bo Peep and marry Little Miss Muffet. Packed with oversized toys, marching wooden soldiers, and slapstick chaos, the film tumbles through a series of improbable rescues and silly songs. It’s a strange, theatrical holiday fantasy that transforms the living room into a storybook dream.
Boxing Day (2021)
A British author returns from Los Angeles to London with his American fiancée, only to be swept into a swirl of family drama, romantic entanglements, and holiday gatherings.
The Snowman (1982)
A magical wordless animated short in which a boy’s snowman comes to life on Christmas Eve night. Together, they explore the nighttime world, eventually flying to a snowy gathering of snowmen presided over by Father Christmas. This beloved British film (famous for its song “Walking in the Air”) has become an annual festive viewing tradition in the UK.
Listen
St. Stephen’s Day Murders by The Chieftains with Elvis Costello
A witty Celtic tune about a Boxing Day family gathering that gets a little too chaotic. Despite the morbid humor, its upbeat fiddle and brass arrangement captures the rowdy, madcap energy that can follow Christmas.
Read
The Box of Delights by John Masefield
Kay Harker receives a magical box that lets him shrink, fly, and travel through time. As he’s pulled into a battle against an evil magician intent on stealing the box, the story blends medieval lore, talking animals, and eerie villains with cozy winter scenes and candlelit carols.
The Toymakers by Robert Dinsdale
A novel set in a mysterious London toyshop that opens each winter with the first frost. Amid the cozy enchantment, the book explores how creativity and play can offer refuge and hope, even as the pressures of the real world, including war, close in.