Days Until Boxing Day

About Boxing Day

December 26 is a public holiday in the United Kingdom and many Commonwealth countries, traditionally associated with giving gifts or gratuities to servants, tradespeople, and the less fortunate — the exact origin of the name itself is debated among historians, with several competing explanations rather than one settled account.

In many of these countries it has also become a major retail shopping day, similar in commercial character to the US's Black Friday.

Several Commonwealth countries, including Canada, the UK, Australia, and New Zealand, use it as a major retail sales day roughly analogous to the position Black Friday holds in the US calendar, despite the different origin.

South Africa observes the same December 26 date under the name Day of Goodwill rather than Boxing Day, a renaming adopted after the end of apartheid to move away from colonial-era terminology.