Boxing Day

,just for Thomas and Jonathon.

The day after Christmas -26th December - was the day when servants and the ‘local peasants’ or poor could visit the Great House or the Mill boss’s home or the vicarage - whoever had money - and receive a box of clothes and food. In middle class homes the cook and tweeny received a little gift, often a gold coin.

It is a Commonwealth custom still to have a gift on the 26th and of course it’s called Boxing Day, because for a couple of centuries the 26th was better than Christmas Day for many people, who had little on Christmas Day, but received that box of goodies on the 26th.