Boxing Day: Everything You Need to Know, as Explained by Parks and Recreation GIFs

From the origins to the where it's most celebrated, here's the story on the holiday

By Jenna Mullins Dec 26, 2013 10:36 PMTags
Parks and Recreation, CastNBC

Everywhere you turn (on the Internet) today, you're probably seeing something about Boxing Day. People are talking about it on Twitter, you see ads about Boxing Day, and if it's one thing we know about humans, it's that we hate feeling left out of things.

That's where we come in. We did some research on Boxing Day and we thought we'd give you a tutorial on everything you need to know about the holiday that falls on Dec. 26. But since you can go anywhere on the web to find out what the hell Boxing Day is, we offer something more entertaining than bullet points: Parks and Recreation GIFs. Learning is much better this way, trust us.

1. We do not celebrate it here in the States (at least officially). Boxing Day is observed by Commonwealth nations, such as the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia. 

2. There are several theories on the origins of Boxing Day, but the European tradition included giving money and gifts to those who were needy and/or in service positions. In Britain, it was custom to give boxes of presents and money to tradesmen as a thanks for their good service. 

3. Those customs are linked to old English traditions where the servants would have to wait on their masters during Christmas, and the day after Christmas would serve as their own holiday to visit with families. 

4. Some places, like the Bahamas, have big parades and street festivals to celebrate. In Britain, they hold annual fox hunts across the English countryside and hundreds and thousands of people turn out for the big event.

5. Now, Boxing Day is a big shopping day for other countries, akin to our own Black Friday (the day after Thanksgiving). Stores have massive sales and people can get great deals online. Hopefully they are less dangerous than we are.

6. Finally, people celebrate Boxing Day by lounging around, doing nothing and basically wasting the day away. It's beautiful, really. But we Americans call that "any day of the week."

Happy Boxing Day, everybody!