christmas gift There is also a widespread European tradition of giving gifts to the poor on St Stephen’s Day, 26 December. In the UK this is called Boxing Day, possibly after the alms box placed in the parish church to collect donations for the poor, or the box of gifts given to servants by their employers each year.
Indeed, the tradition of giving gifts to servants on the 26 December appears to go back a long way. The accounts of Battle Abbey from the 13th and early 16th-century record spending each year on Christmas presents for the monastery’s servants. Mid-15th century accounts for Fountains Abbey also record expenditure of Christmas gifts for servants.
In the 1850s Queen Victoria writes in her diary of walking to the kennels at Windsor Castle with the children to give Christmas Boxes to the ‘little McDonalds’. The servants at Audley End in Es******* in the 1860s had Boxing Day off and were given a dinner of beef, mutton and the usual Christmas fare in the servants’ hall along with their families.
In the mid-20th century Sylvia Grant-Dalton of Brodsworth Hall, South Yorkshire continued the tradition of seasonal philanthropy, throwing regular Christmas parties for children from the local Brodsworth School, where they each got a present from the Christmas tree and shared a delicious
spread of party food.
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