Boxing Day is a holiday all about charity that is celebrated on December 26 in the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and other British Commonwealth nations, though the holiday’s odd name has led to many confused observers. While its exact origins are unknown, the Oxford English Dictionary notes its earliest mention in print was in 1833. For centuries, the day after Christmas was a time for giving gifts in boxes to servants, tradespeople, and the poor. Some theories suggest that’s where the holiday gets its name.
Each year, the historical holiday brings one political question into sharp focus: Should assistance for the poor come from voluntary charity or the state?
Boxing Day Through History
For centuries, before Boxing Day was given an official name, it was a day on which the upper class would box up gifts for the less fortunate. During the Victorian era from 1837 to 1901, the gifts often contained leftover food, goods, and money.
One of the earliest known observances of Boxing Day was in 1663: English parliamentarian Samuel Pepys wrote in his diary about sending “a coach and messenger to his shoemaker” to deliver “something to the boys’ box against Christmas,” according to The Old Farmer’s Almanac.
The tradition began because servants were often given December 26 off after working for their masters on Christmas Day.
Private Charity vs the State
Boxing Day has always been about the wealthy voluntarily helping the poor. Assistance was given by individuals, families, churches, and local communities to those in need. Charity was personal and compassionate. But where charity emphasizes compassion and support, welfare promotes entitlement and policy.
Today, that divide is more pronounced than ever. Supporters of expansive welfare systems argue that government programs ensure fairness and universal coverage.
Critics of welfare programs, however, warn that such systems discourage self-reliance, weaken community bonds, and crowd out private charity.
The CATO Institute noted that studies dating back to the 1870s have found that private charity goes up when government programs decrease, and private charity plummets when welfare grows.
Private charity is also more likely to lift the poor out of poverty than government assistance, CATO added. While the so-called “war on poverty” helped “reduce the worst deprivations of material poverty,” it also “reached a point of diminishing returns.”
While Boxing Day is not often celebrated in America, the principles it highlights still apply across the pond. According to Philanthropy Roundtable (PR), an association designed to build and sustain an American philanthropic movement, the vast majority of American charity is given by individuals.
“Between individual donations and bequests in wills, personal gifts come to over four times as much, every year, as what behemoths like the Gates, Ford, Walton, etc. foundations plus corporations give away,” PR reported, citing Giving USA data.
Is compassion stronger when it is mandated by policy, or when it is freely chosen? The centuries-old tradition of charitable giving on Boxing Day suggests an answer that modern politics often avoids: Charity works best when it is local and voluntary.
