After a brief holiday hiatus, we’re back behind the Bloginator, providing you with Blog posts containing information about local events, activities, places, home prices and sales, interesting homes, people and other topics and of course, our listings.

Just in case you’ve ever wondered about why today (Dec 26th) is referred to as Boxing Day and what it is, we wanted to attempt to provide you with an answer.

In the United Kingdom and in a number of the countries formerly part of the British Empire, Boxing Day is a holiday celebrated on the day after Christmas. As is the case with many things, there are varying ideas on how the holiday came to be. The Oxford English Dictionary defines it as a holiday falling on the first week-day after Christmas-day on which post-men, errand-boys, and servants of various kinds expect to receive a Christmas-box. The Christmas-box meant a present or gratuity given at Christmas to those who provide services to and are paid for their services by the general public.

In Britain, it was also a custom for tradesmen to collect "Christmas boxes" of money or presents on the first weekday after Christmas as thanks for good service throughout the year. This custom was linked to another British tradition, where servants of the wealthy who had to wait on their employers on Christmas Day were allowed to take the next day off to spend time with their families. Their employers would often give each servant a box to take home containing gifts, bonuses, and sometimes leftover food.

There is also a  European tradition of giving money and other gifts to those who were needy and in service positions, believed to be in reference to the Alms Box placed in areas of worship to collect donations for the poor. It could also stem from a late Roman/early Christian custom where metal boxes were placed outside churches to collect special offerings tied to the Feast of Saint Stephen, which occurs on the same day as Boxing Day.

So there you have it...good to know.