Boxing Day

In today's story, Boxing Day, an American family learns about a new (to them) holiday

Today's prompt was inspired by Boxing Day, a holiday celebrated in many countries on December 26th, the day after Christmas. Happy holidays!

As always, this story was written from the prompt, with no planning and very little editing. If you enjoy today's story, please share it with your friends and leave a review for Freely Written. Thank you!


More about Susan Quilty

Susan Quilty mainly writes novels, including two standalone novels and her current YA series: The Psychic Traveler Society.  Susan's short stories for Freely Written are created during quick writing breaks and shared as a way to practice her narration skills before she dives into recording audio versions of her novels.

Website:  SusanQuilty.com
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Transcript

Below is the transcript for Season 1, Episode 105 of Freely Written, a podcast by author Susan Quilty:

Welcome to Freely Written where a simple prompt leads to a little unplanned fiction. 

[Light piano music]

Hi, friends! I’m Susan Quilty and today’s prompt is Boxing Day.

Happy holidays! Whether your winter celebrations have passed or are now in full swing, I hope you’re having a happy December and looking forward to the start of a new year. 

Today’s prompt is based on a holiday that I have been seeing on calendars my whole life but have never officially celebrated. Boxing Day, in my understanding, is mainly celebrated in the UK, Canada, and Australia. Though maybe in some other countries, too?  

It’s not an official US holiday, though after reading about how it’s celebrated, in its modern form, it sounds like what a lot of Americans do on December 26th anyway. More on that in the story. 

While I wrote today’s story with my usual podcast process—freely written from the prompt with no planning and very little editing—I had recently read up on Boxing Day, so what I remembered made it into the story. 

Without further ado, let’s see how that turned out:

Boxing Day

Steven studied his calendar with a wrinkle in his brow and a sideways slant of his mouth. He had dutifully marked off each day until Christmas while looking longingly at the picture of Santa’s sleigh flying over snowy roofs, promising presents to all the good little girls and boys. As he’d checked off each day, he had made an effort to be extra good, ensuring his place on the nice list, and had been rewarded with a new bike and other toys. 

Now, on December 26th, he stared at the calendar with puzzled eyes. In small print, the day was marked as Boxing Day with parentheses that held the word (Canada). Steven knew the writing meant it was a holiday because the same small print was on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. He also guessed the parenthetical note meant it was a holiday in Canada. But here, in the United States, he’d never heard of Boxing Day and wondered what he was missing. 

It was a strange name for a holiday, he thought. Though it couldn’t be any weirder than a holiday all about a groundhog and his shadow. Maybe this one was about a kangaroo boxer like the one he once saw in an old cartoon.

The mysterious holiday was on his mind as he headed downstairs for breakfast. His dad was making pancakes, and his mom was looking through a pile of Christmas cards while saying, “Oh, look how big little Natalie has gotten!”

Natalie was Steven’s cousin who lived way out in Montana. She was five, two years younger than him, and his mom was always saying how big she’d gotten every time his aunt send a new picture. Steven didn’t think Natalie was all that big. He was taller than her, even if he was one of the shorter boys at school. 

“Two or three pancakes?” his dad asked after saying good morning. 

Steven asked for two, still feeling a bit full from all the cookies he’d eaten before bed. 

“You’ll have to get dressed after breakfast,” his mom advised. “Aunt Sally is bringing the girls over at 10.”

“Uncle Nate, too?” Steven asked as his dad set his plate in front of him. 

“Yes, of course,” his mom said lightly. 

Steven thought it was strange how everyone always talked about Aunt Sally and the girls without saying Uncle Nate, too, even though you were supposed to know he was included. To Steven, Uncle Nate was the one most worth mentioning. 

Aunt Sally was nice enough and the girls—his cousins Jen and Ivy—were pretty fun to play with, even if they weren’t boys. But his Uncle Nate was his favorite relative. He didn’t try to play with Steven the way other adults did—like marching his toys around with funny voices as if he was three—or ask him endless questions about his favorites. Colors, animals, teachers, and so on. Instead, Uncle Nate would just sit by him and ask, “How’s it going?” Then, he’d listen to whatever Steven wanted to say. 

Knowing Uncle Nate was coming over, Steven almost waited to ask him about Boxing Day. But then he thought it might be cool to tell Uncle Nate what he’d learned about it on his own. He paused before his next bite of pancake, and asked, “What’s Boxing Day?”

“Boxing Day?” his mom repeated, as if she might have misheard him. 

“Today is Boxing Day,” his dad said with a barking laugh. “At least in jolly old England and her majesty’s once-conquered lands. Except this one.”

“His majesty’s,” Steven’s mom corrected, bringing a thoughtful frown to his dad’s face. 

“Oh, yeah, that’s hard to get used to.” They agreed and started talking about kings and queens when Steven impatiently interrupted. 

“But what is Boxing Day?”

“Oh, right.” His parents eyed each other. 

“I think it’s the day they watch boxing matches on TV,” his dad guessed. “Like we watch football here.”

“Is boxing a big sport for them?” His mom seemed skeptical. She put down the card in her hand and said, “I always thought it had something to do with taking the empty boxes out after Christmas.”

“My calendar says it’s a holiday in Canada,” Steven offered helpfully. 

“Yeah, Canada is kind of related to the UK,” his dad explained. “And Australia, too.”

“What’s the UK?” Steven cut another piece of pancake and wondered why his parents always added so much other information before getting to an answer. 

“United Kingdom,” his mom answered. “It’s England, Scotland, and Northern Ireland.”

“And Wales,” his dad added while putting the pancake griddle in the sink. 

“Whales?” Steven really didn’t know what whales had to do with Boxing Day, until his mom quickly said that it was the name of a place not the whales that live in the ocean. 

“Just ask your phone,” Steven finally suggested with a sigh. 

“Oh, good idea.” His dad pulled his phone out of his back pocket and scrunched up his mouth as he scrolled through whatever he’d found on its screen. 

“So, there are some different possible origins for Boxing Day. Some say wealthy families gave their servants the day after Christmas off and gave them boxes of food and gifts to take home to their families. Other people say it goes back to the donation boxes in churches that collected money for the needy. Or it was the day tradespeople got gifts from their customers.”

“That’s interesting.” Steven recognized his mom’s tone and knew his parents were about to get into a long, boring discussion. 

He quickly asked, “But what do people do on Boxing Day?” 

“You mean nowadays?” Steven’s dad scrolled on his phone some more, but his mom also had her phone out and answered for him.

“It’s a national holiday, so most people have the day off. Looks like they mostly just relax, maybe go shopping or watch sports…”

“Boxing?” Steven’s dad asked but his mom laughed and shook her head.

“Football and horse racing.”

“She means soccer,” Steven’s dad told him with a wink he didn’t understand. 

“Hmm… it says families often get together to hang out and eat Christmas leftovers.”

“Huh,” his dad nodded thoughtfully. “So, we kind of are celebrating Boxing Day.”

“I guess so,” his mom agreed. “We just didn’t know it.”

Steven thought about that, then quickly pushed his chair from the table. 

“Hey, where are you going so fast?” his dad asked.

“Hopefully to get dressed and brush your teeth,” his mom suggested. 

“I will,” Steven promised. “But first I have to make a Happy Boxing Day sign for the front door!”

He ran off to gather his art supplies, excited to tell Uncle Nate, Aunt Sally, and his cousins all about the new holiday in their house. 

The End

Thanks for listening. While recording this, I realized this is the third story in a row that features kids. I guess the winter holidays bring kids to mind. If you have a prompt to suggest for the new year, please connect with me through social media or my website: SusanQuilty.com. Links are in the show notes. 

If you enjoyed this and other stories, please share Freely Written with your friends. This is a fun side project for me, and I love seeing that I have listeners from all over the world. Hopefully, you feel inspired to write your own stories or start a journal to capture whatever you’re thinking about day to day. 

As an indie author, growing my audience is always a challenge. I would love it if you could check out my books. They are mainly novels, though I also have a choose-your-ending style book. You can find my books on my website, on Amazon, and through many other retailers, in both print and ebook editions. And if you have enjoyed my books, please leave a review! Reviews are extremely helpful and very appreciated.  

Until next time, try a little free writing of your own. Let go of any planning and see where your imagination takes you. 

[Light piano music]