Dec
26
2009
Our Christmas in Cayman
I love living in Grand Cayman. It’s felt like home for me and my family since the first day we arrived. The people of the Cayman Islands–especially First Baptist–have everything to do with that. In our experience, you won’t meet warmer, more hospitable people.
The first couple Christmas celebrations in Cayman took a little adjusting, though. Our first Christmas came 24 days after our son Titus was born. What a blessing it was to have such precious gift from the Lord in our home. My mother and mother-in-law were here with us for most of that December, blessing us in hundreds of ways as they helped out with the family.
The other Christmas celebrations required us to adjust to the weather. Somehow “I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas” just doesn’t fit in a sunny, 80+ degree climate. Even more incongruous are the inflatable snowmen in everyone’s virtually beach front yards.
But this year, I think we’ve finally settled into the Christmas routine of Cayman. It was perhaps the most “full” Christmas we’ve had in some time. There was a beautiful candlelight Christmas Eve service at the church, following a Christmas lights tour of the island. Christmas morning featured a little family time before going over to the church for the Christmas Day service. Nice time at home afterwards, and a lovely time at dinner with a large family. Had may favorite–Cayman beef, a traditional Christmas meal here. Yeah, I’m used to that! Another trip to a Christmas light show then back home for movie night with the family. This year we watched The Soloist, largely because the girls received a guitar and violin as gifts. (Movie review: Apart from a few scenes with profanity, a moving story about a homeless musical prodigy befriended by a L.A. Times reporter; one that touches home for me because of an uncle with similar mental health challenges).
But now it’s Boxing Day. I’m still getting accustomed to Boxing Day. It’s a bank holiday in the U.K., New Zealand, S. Africa and a couple other countries with Christian histories. Here’s part of the description from Wikipedia:
The name derives from the tradition of giving seasonal gifts, on the day after Christmas, to less wealthy people and social inferiors, which was later extended to various workpeople such as labourers and servants.
The traditional recorded celebration of Boxing Day has long included giving money and other gifts to charitable institutions, the needy and people in service positions. The European tradition has been dated to the Middle Ages, but the exact origin is unknown and there are some claims that it goes back to the late Roman/early Christian era.
In the United Kingdom it certainly became a custom of the nineteenth century Victorians for tradesmen to collect their “Christmas boxes” or gifts in return for good and reliable service throughout the year on the day after Christmas.
The establishment of Boxing Day as a defined public Holiday under the legislation that created the UK’s Bank Holidays started the separation of ‘Boxing Day’ from the ‘Feast of St Stephen’ and today it is almost entirely a secular holiday with a tradition of shopping and post Christmas sales starting.
Being new to the holiday (the U.S. doesn’t celebrate Boxing Day, so unless you live near Canada you probably get no exposure to it), I must confess some conflicted opinions of it. On the one hand, I’m all for a holiday dedicated to serving those who serve us so faithfully. On the other hand, though, the celebration after Christmas still seems to put such people “second” in the season. To the non-initiated, it feels like saying, “Happy Belated Christmas.” That works with birthdays, but feels odd with Christmas or demonstrations of appreciation. And now, the holiday appears to have become primarily about shopping and sales after Christmas.
Nonetheless, I’m the guy coming from the country that doesn’t have a similar day. So, I think it’s up to me to learn more and give more during this holiday.
If there are any readers out there with Boxing Day experience, what’s been your best Boxing Day memory? Or, how should a novice like me serve on Boxing Day?
3 Comments
I had never thought to look into the origin of Boxing Day.
As far as the UK is concerned, Boxing Day is just another day of holiday, and also the start of sales at shops. It seems to be the British equivalent of Black Friday.
Boxing Day is actually not necessarily a day that you celebrate. It is more a call to action. Several churches use the day to prepare a meal and take to shut-ins and senior citizens. The Queen used to box the gifts that were given to her for Christmas which of course she did not really need. She boxed them to pass on the persons that really needed them and needed the help. Because it is a holiday I guess in recent years in the U.K has started to copy the tradition in the U.S. and Canada with the post holiday sales. However that is not original intent. Several churches in Cayman do use the day to care for the indigent, senior citizens and shut-ins.
Yes, I can confirm that in Canada Boxing Day is nothing more than a day off work and an excuse for stores to offer some very good sales. In the last few years I’ve noticed the stores have switched from Boxing Day sales to Boxing Week sales.