If there is one word in the Christmas vocabulary that divides people when discussing its origin it would have to be boxing day. Celebrated mostly in some countries of the Commonwealth, the 26th is a public holiday that in recent years has come to be associated with cut-throat bargain shopping for many, but in my family involves grazing on Christmas lunch left-overs and playing with new toys. In many countries with a Christian tradition the day is often celebrated as St. Stephen’s day.

But where did the term boxing day come from? Snopes have a great article tracking various myths about the origins of the name. The earliest attested source is in a book from 1833, and it appears a few years later in Dickens’ The Pickwick Papers. Both Worknik and the OED make reference to the fact that it’s the day that post men and servants receive gifts. According to this origin of the word one gave equals their gifts on Christmas day, and their inferiors gifts on boxing day - it appears that even the Christmas spirit must give way to the pragmatics of class relations.

And that’s about as much as anyone is willing to say on the matter, as there isn’t much more evidence to give any certain definition of the term. The stories about boxing day relating to violent fist-fights, or throwing out unwanted gifts, will probably always linger in the absence of anything more exciting. But I’m happy to just kick back, find the last few mince pies and acquaint myself with some new and exiting books.

We’ll be going right though with Christmasy words until the twelfth day of Christmas, so if you’ve got a Christmas word you’ve ever wondered about yet us know! All references in these posts thanks to the always reliable Oxford English Dictionary, Etymonline and Wordnik.