Tuesday, December 26, 2006

Happy Boxing Day!


Yeah, I know - I didn't post a "Merry Christmas" yesterday. I'm waiting on my Official Photographer, Amanda, to come up off the pictures.

(I'd better be nice to her. She's babysitting the little one today.)

Anyhoo, I thought that whilst I was awaiting the Official Christmas Snapshots, I'd wish everyone a Happy Boxing Day.

What's that? You don't know what Boxing Day is? Let me put on my slightly-snooty-hey-my-sister's-been-to-England-so-I-know-lots-of-British-stuff hat and fill you in.

According to Wikipedia (what did we ever do without THAT?), Boxing Day is a public holiday, celebrated on the day after Christmas, in the British Commonwealth.

"Boxing Day in the UK is traditionally a day for sporting activity, originally fox hunting, but in modern times football and horse racing," so says the Wiki.

There are lots of different theories as to the origins of Boxing Day, from employees taking boxes to their jobs into which their employers would place money (oh, heck yeah!) to churches giving the money out of the collections box to the disadvantaged on the day after Christmas.

I don't know how we'd celebrate Boxing Day here in the US, but traditionally, it seems that people here go to the after Christmas sales and stock up on decorations and gifts, and they promptly forget where they hide them, and then they have to go back next October and buy up all new stuff again.

And then, on Christmas Eve, like at my house, someone's mother is scratching her head saying, "I know I bought you another present. Where did I put it?

Man, that's the worst, especially when you're a kid! A mythical present! It could be anything - a race car, a pony, or an Old Navy gift card that everyone else in the family got except you.

And I'm not kidding on that last part.

So, anyway, happy Boxing Day. Whether you celebrate by playing football (or, as we Yanks call it, soccer) or by elbowing people in line at Target to get your hands on some half price Choxie, have a great day!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I would like to say, for the record, that the official photos have been e-mailed to the official blogger.

Melissa said...

Thanks, Amanda. And nice way of introducing the world (or at least the world for the purposes of this blog) to your England picture blog.