Christmas boxes

26 December · London

Still kept

The day after Christmas was called Boxing Day because tradesmen’s boys, apprentices and servants went round the customers collecting money in their Christmas boxes. A writer of 1731 described the stream to his door: the brewer’s, baker’s and other tradesmen’s servants, then the watch, beadles, dustmen, the bellman and even the parish clerk, all pleading the custom. That evening he found them in an alehouse over roast beef and plum pudding, quarrelling over who had given too little, while their wives complained the money only led to drink. Chambers found the postman, lamplighter and dustman still expecting their boxes in the 1860s.

because I had laid out a great deal of ready-money with my brewer, baker, and other tradesmen, they kindly thought it my duty to present their servants with some money for the favour of having their goods

From Hone's Every-Day Book, vol. 1, cols. 1645-1646; Chambers's Book of Days, vol. 2, pp. 764-765; Hone's Year Book, col. 1512. Read the original

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Folklore from the old calendars

The Northumberland sword dancers Still kept NorthumberlandA correspondent of the Table Book, describing the miners of Northumberland, wrote that the old custom of sword dancing at Christmas was kept up there only by the pitmen.
Beating the lapstone No longer kept WiltshireAt Nettleton, near Burton, the shoemakers kept up a practical joke on the day after Christmas called beating the lapstone.
Hunting the wren at Middleton Still kept MunsterAn old woman of Middleton in County Cork remembered that on St Stephen's Day the young men of the neighbourhood, in holiday clothes trimmed with coloured ribbons, paraded the town carrying a furze bush with a wren secured in it.
Goose pies in the North Riding No longer kept YorkshireA memoir of Christmas in the North Riding of Yorkshire, printed in the Gentleman's Magazine in 1811, told how large goose pies were made on St Stephen's Day.
The Inner Temple Christmas No longer kept LondonThe lawyers of the Inner Temple kept Christmas with elaborate mock ceremony.
The servants’ holiday at Chester No longer kept CheshireCheshire farm servants were hired from New Year's Eve to Christmas Day, and then took six or seven days off, leaving their masters to manage alone.
Stephening No longer kept BuckinghamshireOn St Stephen's Day the whole parish of Drayton Beauchamp went to the rectory and claimed the right to as much bread, cheese and ale as they liked at the rector's expense.
Bleeding the horses No longer kept EnglandIt was an old belief that on St Stephen's Day horses should be galloped hard and then bled, to keep them free of disease for the coming year.

Christmas boxes

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