LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Boxing Day: Poor
built 650 days ago
[R]elated to the origin of Boxing Day is the tradition of opening the alms boxes placed in churches over the Christmas season. The contents of these boxes were distributed amongst the poor, by the clergy, the day after Christmas.
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There are several explanations for the name Boxing Day. One is that the lord of the estate would give practical goods such as cloth, grains and tools to the serfs who lived on his land. Each family would receive a box full of such goods the day after Christmas. This can be compared with the modern day concept of Christmas bonuses. Another theory is that boxes were placed in churches where parishioners deposited coins for the poor and these were opened and the contents distributed on December 26, which is ... the Feast of St. Stephen.
Source:
The day after Christmas, the Feast of St. Stephen, the first Christian martyr, is better known as Boxing Day. The term may come from the opening of church poor boxes that day; maybe from the earthenware boxes with which boy apprentices collected money at the doors of their masters' clients.
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