The day after Christmas can be a shopping nightmare for customers and customer service departments. Retailers roll out huge after-Christmas deals to attract a surge of year-end business, while customers come in droves to return or exchange Christmas gifts.

One thing you may not know about December 26 is that in some nations, it is a holiday. The United Kingdom, Canada, Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Trinidad and Tobago, along with a handful of other places, celebrate December 26 as “Boxing Day.”

Here are a few fun facts about Boxing Day (that have nothing to do with the mass amount of shopping and returns retailers and customer service reps will have to deal with today).

  1. Boxing Day was traditionally the day the family opened the box for the poor.
  2. The Christmas Box was often made of clay or wood and was where people placed gifts.
  3. In South Africa, Boxing Day is known as ‘Day of Goodwill’

Have a happy holiday season and be kind to one another!

Read more fun facts about Boxing day, here.