This Boxing Day trivia quiz has 50 free questions with answers and covers the day after Christmas from every angle: where the name came from (alms boxes, Christmas boxes and Pepys's diary), the 1871 Act that made it a bank holiday, Saint Stephen and the Wren Day parades of Ireland and the Isle of Man, Good King Wenceslas, and how the day is kept from South Africa's Day of Goodwill to Bermuda's Gombeys. There is a full round on Boxing Day sport, from Premier League derbies and the MCG Test to the Sydney to Hobart, the King George VI Chase and the World Juniors, plus the sales, the leftovers and the 2004 tsunami. It is written for anyone who has ever wondered why it is called Boxing Day. Every question is multiple choice with a short explanation after you answer, so it works as a family round on the day itself. Every answer has been checked against a primary source, and each question links to the page that confirms it.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01How does the Banking and Financial Dealings Act 1971 define the UK's Boxing Day bank holiday?
As '26th December, if it be not a Sunday'
The Act never uses the name Boxing Day at all.
Q 02Boxing Day originated in which country?
The United Kingdom
It spread from Britain to many Commonwealth nations.
Q 03Boxing Day was traditionally a day for doing what?
Giving gifts to the needy and to servants
The custom of tipping tradesmen with a 'Christmas box' was already recorded in Samuel Pepys's diary in 1663.
Q 04One theory traces the name to a church box opened the day after Christmas. What kind of box?
An alms box for the poor
Alms boxes tied to the Feast of Saint Stephen were opened and the money distributed to the poor.
Q 05Which diarist mentioned tradesmen collecting 'Christmas boxes' in an entry for 19 December 1663?
Samuel Pepys
Servants who worked Christmas Day were sent home the next day with a box of gifts, bonuses and leftovers.
Q 06The Oxford English Dictionary's earliest attestation of 'Boxing Day' dates from which year?
1743
It defines it as 'the day after Christmas day' when employees received Christmas boxes.
Q 07Boxing Day became a bank holiday in England, Wales and Ireland under an Act of which year?
1871
The Bank Holidays Act was introduced by John Lubbock; the new days were nicknamed 'St Lubbock's Days'.
Q 08Boxing Day usually falls on the feast day of which figure, the first Christian martyr?
Stephen
Stephen was the first Christian martyr, stoned to death around AD 34.
Q 09The martyr whose feast is kept on the day after Christmas held what office in the early Jerusalem church?
Deacon
Acts describes him as one of seven Greek-speaking deacons chosen to distribute food; Saul of Tarsus witnessed his stoning.
Q 10In parts of Ireland and the Isle of Man, the day after Christmas is named for which traditionally hunted bird?
Wren
'Wrenboys' in straw masks paraded the bird on a decorated pole and collected money.
Q 11In most of Ulster the day is called Boxing Day. What is it called across most of the rest of Ireland?
Stephen's Day
It is one of ten official public holidays in the Republic and a traditional day for pantomimes and fox hunts.
Q 12The carol 'Good King Wenceslas' is set on the feast day after Christmas. What is the king doing?
Taking alms to a poor peasant
His page follows in the king's footprints through the snow; the lyrics were written by John Mason Neale in 1853.
Q 13The melody of 'Good King Wenceslas' was borrowed from a 13th-century carol about which season?
Spring
'Tempus adest floridum' was found in a 1582 Finnish song collection, Piae Cantiones.
Q 21In Britain, football fixtures on Boxing Day were originally arranged against which kind of opponent?
Local rivals
The idea was that teams and fans would not have to travel far the day after Christmas.
Q 22Australia's Boxing Day cricket Test is played in which city?
Melbourne
The tradition dates from the 1974-75 Ashes and was formalised by the Australian Cricket Board in 1980.
Q 23The Boxing Day Test's player-of-the-match medal is named after which Indigenous cricketer?
Johnny Mullagh
Mullagh starred on the 1868 Aboriginal tour of England.
Q 14Which Australian state does NOT observe Boxing Day, celebrating Proclamation Day instead?
South Australia
Proclamation Day marks the 1836 founding of the province beside the Old Gum Tree at Glenelg.
Q 15South Africa renamed Boxing Day in 1994. What name did it give 26 December?
Day of Goodwill
The idea was that the spirit of Christmas should continue into the next day.
Q 16Which US state officially declared 26 December Boxing Day in 1996, though not a holiday?
Massachusetts
Governor William Weld acted at the urging of British expatriates; the day is otherwise little marked in the US.
Q 17What is Boxing Day called in French-speaking Canada?
Le Lendemain de Noël
It is a federal statutory holiday for federally regulated workplaces and a statutory holiday in Ontario.
Q 18Boxing Day survived the 1997 handover and became a statutory holiday in 2024 in which territory?
Hong Kong
Singapore, by contrast, has dropped it as a public holiday.
Q 19On the island of Bermuda, which costumed dancers traditionally perform all over the island on Boxing Day?
Gombeys
The tradition is thought to date to the 18th century, when enslaved people were allowed to gather at Christmas.
Q 20Junkanoo, the masquerade parade held around Boxing Day, is most associated with which countries?
The Bahamas and Jamaica
It originated during slavery in British American colonies and is now also staged in Belize.
Q 24Which famous Australian yacht race starts on Boxing Day and crosses Bass Strait?
Sydney to Hobart
The roughly 630-nautical-mile race across Bass Strait first ran in 1945.
Q 25The Boxing Day yacht race of which year ended in tragedy, with five boats sunk and six sailors dead?
1998
Only 44 of 115 starters reached Hobart; crew age and experience rules were tightened afterwards.
Q 26Britain's most prestigious Boxing Day horse race, the King George VI Chase, is run at which course?
Kempton Park
It was first run in February 1937 and moved to Boxing Day when racing resumed after the war in 1947.
Q 27Which horse won the King George VI Chase a record five times?
Kauto Star
Desert Orchid won it four times.
Q 28Which 2004 law banned chasing foxes with dogs in England and Wales?
The Hunting Act
It came into force on 18 February 2005; hunts still meet on Boxing Day, many following artificial trails.
Q 29Which under-20 ice hockey tournament traditionally opens on Boxing Day and runs into early January?
The IIHF World Juniors
It has an outsized following in Canada, dating from the era when it was a rare chance to face Soviet Bloc players.
Q 30The Spengler Cup, which starts on Boxing Day, is played in which Swiss town?
Davos
First held in 1923, it is often cited as the world's oldest invitational hockey tournament.