How to make Boxing Day a blessing

It's now the day when the sales start, and the big "box stores" try to pull in as many of us as possible to grab our post-Christmas bargains and deal with the flurry of returns and exchanges. But what was the original purpose of this day? And why "boxing" day?

As I grew up the youngest of three lively boys, it was inevitably the day when we started fighting each other over the use or breakage of a treasured Christmas present - the fights were never under the Marquis of Queensbury rules, and I usually lost. But it's not that kind of boxing.

Traditionally it is thought to have come from the Victorian practice of wealthy families presenting gifts in boxes to their household servants, and to tradesmen who had served them well during the year. In other words, a day of expressing gratitude to those less well off. An alternative, but related suggestion is that it was the day the church opened its Alms box to feed and bless the poor and needy of the parish.

This ties in well with the fact that, in the church's calendar, Boxing day remembers the first Christian martyr Stephen - stoned to death for his trust in Jesus (Acts 7 v 54-60). It's a fact enshrined in the words of the famous - but theologically dodgy - carol: Good King Wenceslas, who famously "looked out on the feast of Stephen" and helped a poor man.

So here's a few suggestions for redeeming Boxing day from the commercial pressure, and maintaining the Christmas spirit beyond midnight on the 25th:

• Make it a day of reaching out to others: you have just enjoyed a day of blessing, bounty and gifts in the bosom of your family. Turn that focus outward, and think, pray, do something for those who haven't been blessed with those things. Visit a retirement home, or a hospital. Knock on the door of neighbours who have few family nearby. Make an effort to welcome or involve a foreign student, or migrant worker in your family feasting, or relaxation. Sharing the love and blessing that God has show to us in Christ is a brilliant thing to do on this day.
• Make it a day of thinking about suffering Christians throughout the world. It's a stroke of genius to follow a day of joy, happiness and good feelings with a day about suffering and martyrdom. The Prince of Peace born on the first Christmas warned us that following him demands our lives, and would involve persecution (Matthew 10:24). Give some time to praying for your brothers and sisters throughout the world who are suffering for the name of Christ. Look here for some ideas.
• Make it a day when you remember your heavenly reward. It's easy for us to get caught up in the commercialism of sales. Let's remember with joy that our heavenly master will one day say "well done, good and faithful servant" to those who have received his grace and followed him - and rejoice that our riches are in heaven.