Boxing Day or St. Stephen's Day?

Forgot to check the morning temperature,  but today warmed up to 56°f, or 13°C. Nice day, lots of sunshine. Rain expected to move in overnight.

Did you celebrate Boxing Day in any way? My mother always said it was a day for visiting and taking boxes of cookies to neighbors. I don't remember us boxing up and delivering cookies anywhere though, but I do think we went visiting sometimes, before there were so many of us children. Taking 13 kids visiting, can you imagine?  Historians say that it was the day that the wealthy gave gifts to tradesmen and servants, and sometimes boxed up leftover food from their Christmas feasts to give to the poor and their servants. 

Then there were St. Stephen's Day customs in the UK, one of which was "hunting the wren". According to some sources,  a wren supposedly betrayed the hiding place of Stephen to his pursuers. Today no one actually hunts the poor bird, thank goodness, although a fake wren may be paraded about on top of a pole.  I actually really like this song about the custom, called "Wren in the Furze".

Along this line, I do have a "bird tree". Somehow over the years I ended up with enough bird ornaments to decorate a small tree.

Below the bird tree is where I put the creche this year. Somehow we have managed to misplace the stable, so the poor folks are out in the cold. At least Baby Jesus arrived on time; last year i couldn't find him until several days after Christmas. My mother would always March the Wise Men around the living room until January 6th, when they would finally arrive at the stable. I used to do that too, when my boys were little. (Once I caught my youngest son using the manger scene pieces as action figures, waging a mighty battle. I never did find out who the bad guys were in that war.)

My mother had a real heavenly host of over 100 angels in her creche, and Dad built a special corner shelf to hold it all. In May it became the May altar, with a statue of Mary and fresh flowers all month. My creche seems to be a combination of a couple different sets of figures although I don't recall doing that. I like it though.

But I digress. Back to Boxing Day: these days, people hustle to the stores for the after-Christmas sales. I used to do that when my boys were young and money was so tight. I would stock up on wrapping paper, ribbon, lights, etc. Some friends even waited until after Christmas to do their shopping, then would have gift exchanges on New Year's Day or Old Christmas. They saved a lot of money that way, and avoided the pre-Christmas frenzy.

I admit to doing none of the above today. I stayed home while Larry went out to deliver a load of firewood (trading for some work on his truck). I took care of some ebay business and just enjoyed the nice weather and quiet. 

Tomorrow Little Boy will go to the vet to be neutered, poor little guy. I will stay home while Larry takes him in, as it really doesn't need us both to go. My oldest son and his wife and daughter are coming Saturday, so I will get ready for their visit. And maybe I will have a little time to read the book I started two weeks ago. Maybe?

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.