47 Fun Facts About Boxing Day

How does the 1971 Act listing England's bank holidays describe Boxing Day?

Schedule 1 of the 1971 Act lists the holiday as '26th December, if it be not a Sunday', substituting 27th December when the 25th or 26th is a Sunday; the Act never uses the name Boxing Day.

Boxing Day originated in which country?

The United Kingdom carried the custom across its empire, which is why 26 December is still a public holiday in Commonwealth countries such as Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

Boxing Day was traditionally a day for doing what?

Giving gifts to the needy and to servants: employers handed servants and tradesmen a 'Christmas box' of money or small presents on 26 December, their day off after working through Christmas Day.

One theory traces Boxing Day's name to which church box, opened the day after Christmas?

An alms box for the poor: on this theory the clergy emptied it on 26 December and shared out the money, though the custom is older than the name and nobody knows the origin for sure.

Which diarist mentioned tradesmen collecting 'Christmas boxes' in an entry for 19 December 1663?

Samuel Pepys's diary for 19 December 1663 records paying his shoemaker's bill and giving 'something to the boys' box against Christmas', an early note of the Christmas-box custom.

Which Beatles film had its television premiere on BBC1 on Boxing Day 1967?

Magical Mystery Tour was shot in colour, but BBC1 then broadcast only in black and white, so its psychedelic scenes went out in monochrome; a colour repeat followed on BBC2 on 5 January 1968.

Which monarch reigned when Boxing Day first became a bank holiday in England?

Victoria was queen when the banker and MP Sir John Lubbock steered the Bank Holidays Act through in 1871; the new days off were nicknamed 'St Lubbock's Days' in his honour.

Boxing Day usually falls on the feast day of which figure, the first Christian martyr?

Stephen was stoned to death in Jerusalem around AD 34, and his feast on 26 December is the 'feast of Stephen' on which Good King Wenceslas looks out in the carol.

The martyr honoured the day after Christmas was one of seven chosen to distribute food, holding what church office?

Deacon: Acts lists him first among the seven, remembered as the first deacons, who were picked so the apostles could keep preaching; a young Saul, the future St Paul, watched his stoning.

In parts of Ireland and the Isle of Man, the day after Christmas is named for which traditionally hunted bird?

Wren: the 'king of all birds' was once hunted and paraded through the streets on a decorated pole, and today's wrenboys carry a replica bird instead.

On Boxing Day 1900, a relief crew found three keepers missing from which lighthouse?

Flannan Isles: the tender Hesperus reached Eilean Mòr on 26 December 1900 to find the lamp cleaned and ready to light but keepers James Ducat, Thomas Marshall and Donald McArthur gone; no bodies were ever found.

In the carol 'Good King Wenceslas', what is the king doing on the feast after Christmas?

The king is taking alms to a poor peasant: seeing a poor man gathering winter fuel, Wenceslas carries meat, wine and pine logs to him, his page treading in his footprints; John Mason Neale wrote the words in 1853.

The tune of 'Good King Wenceslas' comes from a 13th-century carol welcoming which season?

Spring: the tune is 'Tempus adest floridum', roughly 'the flowering time is here'; Neale found it in Piae Cantiones, a songbook printed in 1582, and gave it his midwinter words in 1853.

In which Australian state is the 26 December holiday officially Proclamation Day, not Boxing Day?

South Australia marks Governor Hindmarsh proclaiming the colony beside the Old Gum Tree on 28 December 1836; the holiday was later moved to the day after Christmas, though the ceremony at the tree is still usually held on the 28th.

What is the 26 December public holiday officially called in South Africa?

Day of Goodwill: when Christmas falls on a Sunday, its replacement day off lands on the Day of Goodwill, so South Africa's president has declared 27 December an extra holiday, as in 2016 and 2022.

Which holiday's seven nights of candle-lighting begin each year on 26 December?

Kwanzaa was created in 1966 by the activist Maulana Karenga in the aftermath of the Watts riots in Los Angeles; each night a family lights a candle on the kinara and talks over one of seven principles.

What is Boxing Day called in French-speaking Canada?

Le Lendemain de Noël, literally 'the day after Christmas', is the name in Canada's federal labour code; in Quebec the law keeps most shops shut until 1 p.m. that day, so the sales start after lunch.

Which territory added Boxing Day to its statutory holidays in 2024?

Hong Kong already closed banks and offices on 26 December, but the day joined the shorter statutory list that every employer must honour only in 2024, under a 2021 law adding five holidays by 2030.

Which costumed dancers traditionally perform across Bermuda on Boxing Day?

The Gombeys dance through Bermuda's neighbourhoods in painted masks and tall peacock-feather headdresses, driven by drums while a captain signals with a whistle and crowds follow from street to street.

Junkanoo, the masquerade parade held around Boxing Day, is most associated with which countries?

The Bahamas and Jamaica: Nassau's Junkanoo parades fill Boxing Day and New Year's Day, and Jamaica has its own Jonkonnu; the most popular account traces it to enslaved Africans celebrating on their Christmas days off.

In Britain, football fixtures on Boxing Day were originally arranged against which kind of opponent?

Local rivals kept journeys short the day after Christmas; for decades clubs played on Christmas Day as well, so most teams turned out on consecutive days.

Australia's Boxing Day cricket Test is played in which city?

Melbourne's MCG made the Boxing Day Test an annual fixture only after Kerry Packer's Channel Nine won the cricket broadcast rights in 1979; before that just a handful of Tests there had included 26 December.

The Boxing Day Test's best-player medal honours which star of the 1868 Aboriginal tour of England?

Johnny Mullagh made 1,698 runs on that tour, nine years before the first Test, and the team also gave boomerang-throwing displays at their matches; the medal dates from 2020.

Which famous yacht race starts on Boxing Day each year?

Sydney to Hobart began in 1945 when nine yachts planning a holiday cruise decided to race instead; a visiting Royal Navy captain, John Illingworth, won in Rani, and the course still runs about 630 nautical miles.

Which tech billionaire's yacht Sayonara finished first in the 1998 Boxing Day race in which six sailors died?

Larry Ellison's maxi Sayonara led 115 starters into a Bass Strait storm; five yachts sank, six sailors died, 55 were plucked from the sea and only 44 boats finished.

Britain's most prestigious Boxing Day horse race, the King George VI Chase, is run at which course?

Kempton Park spent the Second World War as a prisoner-of-war camp; when racing returned in 1947, the chase first run in February 1937 was given its Boxing Day date.

Which horse won the King George VI Chase five times between 2006 and 2011?

Kauto Star won four in a row from 2006, was well beaten by the younger Long Run next time, then at 11 years old beat him on Boxing Day 2011 to pass Desert Orchid's record of four wins.

Which 2004 law banned chasing foxes with dogs in England and Wales?

The Hunting Act 2004 banned hunting wild mammals with dogs in England and Wales from 18 February 2005; Boxing Day hunts continued as trail hunts following an artificial scent.

Which under-20 ice hockey tournament traditionally opens on Boxing Day and runs into early January?

It has an outsized following in Canada, dating from the era when it was a rare chance to face Soviet Bloc players.

The Spengler Cup, which starts on Boxing Day, is played in which Swiss town?

Davos doctor Carl Spengler donated the trophy in 1923 to bring together nations divided by the First World War; Oxford University won that first tournament, and the host club HC Davos has staged it ever since.

Which future England manager scored in Fulham's 10-1 Boxing Day win in 1963?

Bobby Robson scored against Ipswich Town, the club he would later manage to the FA Cup and the UEFA Cup; that day's ten top-flight games produced 66 goals, and Ipswich won the return 4-2 two days later.

Boxing Day sales are often compared to which American shopping event?

Canadian retailers began copying Black Friday in the late 2000s to stop shoppers crossing the border.

Shoppers packed Britain's 2009 Boxing Day sales partly because which tax was about to rise back to 17.5%?

VAT had been cut to 15% a year earlier to fight the recession, and shoppers rushed to buy televisions and other big-ticket goods before it went back up on 1 January 2010; Boxing Day also fell on a Saturday.

The 'Boxing Day tsunami' of 2004 was triggered by an earthquake off the coast of which island?

Sumatra: the undersea fault off its north-west coast unzipped for about 1,200 km, roughly the length of California, within minutes, and Aceh at the island's northern tip took the worst of the waves.

Which school subject taught ten-year-old Tilly Smith to spot the 2004 tsunami coming?

Geography: two weeks earlier her class had studied tsunamis, so she recognised the foam sizzling on the water like a frying pan and warned her parents; theirs was one of the few Phuket beaches where no one was killed.

When Christmas Day falls on a Saturday, the UK's substitute bank holidays fall on which days?

Monday and Tuesday: the Christmas Day substitute falls on Monday 27 December and the Boxing Day one on Tuesday 28; when Christmas is a Sunday, its substitute lands on the Tuesday, a day after Boxing Day.

Which part of the UK did not get Boxing Day as a bank holiday until 1974?

Scotland: the original bank holiday Act gave Scots New Year's Day but not 26 December; in 1974 each side gained the other's day, with New Year's Day becoming a bank holiday in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

What is the traditional Boxing Day meal in Britain?

Leftover turkey sandwiches or curry: the Boxing Day custom is not to cook from scratch, so Christmas leftovers are eaten cold in sandwiches or turned into a turkey curry or bubble and squeak.

Which dish do families in Catalonia traditionally make on 26 December to use up the Christmas Day meat?

Canelons: meat from the Christmas Day meal is minced, rolled into pasta tubes and baked under béchamel and cheese, and the family gathers again for a second feast less than a day after the first.

In Germany, the Netherlands, Poland and Czechia, the 26 December holiday's name translates as what?

Second Christmas Day: Germans say Zweiter Weihnachtsfeiertag and the Dutch Tweede Kerstdag; many Dutch families make the day an outing to the furniture mall, and the showrooms are busy.

Which American Revolutionary battle was fought on 26 December 1776, after Washington crossed the Delaware?

Trenton: after crossing the icy Delaware overnight, Washington's men caught the Hessian garrison by surprise on the morning of 26 December 1776; most of it was captured and its commander, Johann Rall, was mortally wounded.

What are New Zealanders owed for working Boxing Day?

Time and a half plus a day in lieu is the legal minimum when the holiday falls on a day the employee would normally work; even a two-hour shift earns a whole paid day off.

Which state was voted out of existence by its own parliament on 26 December 1991?

The Soviet Union: a day after Gorbachev resigned, the remaining deputies met in the Kremlin and voted both the country and their own parliament out of existence.

Which bowler became the first to take 700 Test wickets, reaching the mark on Boxing Day 2006?

Shane Warne bowled England's Andrew Strauss in front of nearly 90,000 at his home ground, days after announcing he would retire; he took four more wickets that day, the last five-wicket haul of his Test career.

Which element, named from the Latin for 'ray', did Marie and Pierre Curie announce on 26 December 1898?

Radium followed polonium, named for Marie's native Poland, by five months; to prove it existed she spent years boiling down tons of pitchblende in a leaky shed that had once been a dissecting room.

Which Dublin racecourse's four-day Christmas Festival opens on 26 December each year?

Leopardstown races for four days from 26 December, building to the Savills Chase; in 2025 Affordale Fury upset the favourite Galopin Des Champs, who had won the two previous runnings.

Which Gilbert and Sullivan opera, their first, opened on Boxing Day 1871 with a plot set on Olympus?

Thespis ran for 63 performances at London's Gaiety Theatre, but no score was published and most of the music is lost; its chorus 'Climbing over rocky mountain' survives because Sullivan reused it in The Pirates of Penzance.