For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for December 26, 2024

Are there places in the United States where they have Boxing Day Sales or Boxing Day Bargoons? Where I live in Tucson, there is nothing like this.

“Awright, put up yer dukes!” LOL

Another thing that has outlived its purpose and they ought to do away with like daylight savings time. Just another excuse to give federal employees a day off.

In 1966 I was on a six week college drama class in Europe where we attended one or two plays six days a week and wrote critiques. (A wonderful experience!) We flew via Icelandic Airlines and landed in Luxembourg on Boxing Day. As I walked around the city, I saw groups of children. Each child had two sticks which they would beat together. They would go into businesses beating their sticks and chanting something, and the proprietors would give them candy to leave.

It wasn’t boxing up excess stuff to give to the poor: churches had boxes in them to collect money for the poor, and these were opened and distributed on St Stephen’s Day (26 December).

More “Cousin Oliver”..

One of the things that make me mad is how retailers, online and brick & mortar, exploit Memorial Day to sell vehicles, mattresses or just about anything else. When I was younger Memorial Day was a day that towns would hold ceremonies at cemeteries and the veterans memorial parks which just about every community had somewhere in town. After that it was quiet day of enjoying the Spring weather. With very few exceptions, retailers were closed on Memorial Day.

Happy St. Stephan’s Day! Rock On and Get Stoned!

So sad.

It is called Boxing Day because, in the UK, delivery people (Dustmen, Milkmen, Paper carriers, etc.) used to go round on December 26th asking for a “box” (a monetary annual gift). I was still going in the 1940s and 1950s when I was a child and teenager in London. Noting to do with charity for the poor, I’m afraid. I suppose the name still lingers on in the Commonwealth countries.

I thought it went to the servants.

Boxing Day? Oh right. When I was just a lad, we’d celebrate Saint Stephen’s Day by boxing. If you met a friend on a street corner, you’d beat the stuffing out of each other. It seems to have fallen out of favor. Pity.

Boxing Day is a holiday in Massachusetts as of 1996. But isn’t official enough to close up stores etc.

Is “Bargoon” a Canadian slang spelling or just a Lynn Johnston-ism?

Boxing Day at the mall is always fun. That is, if you don’t mind waiting in a lot of lines!

It was also called boxing day, because servants would trade roles with their masters, and were allowed to gently “box” their master’s ears for minor errors (the errors usually were done deliberately and in jest)

With so many people giving and receiving gift cards these days, it’s almost a necessity.

A day of generosity would be a good holiday to have in the US

Ah boxing day, I’ve always enjoyed the day after Christmas, great day to go out and window shop all day and treat ones self to fun !

“Bargoons.” I like that. Or does it mean “bar goons,” goons who hang out at bars?

The Rump is going to put a tariff on Canadian Cartoons. Says it will cause more employments among American cartoonists.

I was raised in New England, now residing in SW Utah. There’s no trace of Boxing Day in either region.

Look on the bright side of life…sure, we’ll have the orange eunuch back in the oval office, but….we got Manila, is it Manuela? Carmelita? Ahh, the new old first lady, whatsername, to brighten up the Whitehouse for Christmas. Such a fine sense of fashion and good taste. ? Melanoma?

“Who gives a shite about forking Christmas, anyway?”

i always thought it had to do with boxing matches.

Saint Stephen’s Day

Best thing about Boxing Day is the football. It is the start of the festive season that sees most Premiere League teams play about 4 games each within about 10 to 12 days. Tough on the players glorious for the fans.

They have them everywhere, 50% off after Christmas sales.

There’s a killer on the road

She looks like a toad

Make that gate lock stay

Don’t let your children play

If John kept up his fly

Farley would still be alive

Killer on the road

Not in the U.S., Boxing Day is usually celebrated by countries that are part of the British Commonwealth. This comic strip written by a Canadian.

J. R. R. Tolkien reported in “Letters from Father Christmas” that St. Nicholas, AKA Father Christmas in England, and the other residents of the North Pole had a big celebration on Boxing Day. A day of fun after all their hard work.

Shouldn’t that be Boxing Day Knock Out?

It’s good to see John out with April and engaged in talking to her and explaining things. That’s a very dad thing to do.