Every year, in countries such as Britain and Canada, (yes, Canada is a country) Christmas is just the first day in a two day extravaganza of holiday cheer. Boxing day, also known as December 26th or the day after Christmas in America, is a day of giving to all the poor schmucks who have to clean up after us all year long, but especially on the day after the biggest paper waste day of the year. It's a day where the common person gives to the commoner person, the garbage man, who makes things so nice and unfitly on the common day.

Christmas is really supposed to be about giving. And Christ, of course (I always forget that part). But, the average American is making their list of goodies that they can't live without months in advance of the actual holiday. Truth be known, the average American will spend more time figuring out their gifts than actually shopping or making gifts for other people by a margin of about 24 days. In Canada though, the epitome of culture, there is a day of true giving: Boxing Day. Boxing Day is a holiday born in the middle ages. The day marks the death of yet another, lesser known, Christian servant, St. Stephen, who is best known as the first martyr of the saints and the subject of Bob Dylan's song "Rainy Day Women #12 & #35". He was stoned to death, okay, if you didn't get the reference. But, on this day, the priests would make a point of commemorating this saint's ugly, ugly death by giving money and food to the same caste that made the point of throwing lots of rocks at him. In modern times, it has eased off a bit, and become a day to give stuff to the down-trodden and over worked. Read: garbage men.

The actual holiday works as such; people buy gifts, wrap said gifts in lots of cardboard and packing peanuts (mmmm, packing peanuts...), wrapping paper, leave these gifts under a tree in exchange for shit they actually want, and when their gifts are as cheesy as the gifts they left, they angrily throw all of the paper, cardboard, and sometimes gifts straight into the trash. Enter the garbage man, who has to deal with all of this gift-craziness. The garbage man has to deal with the aftermath of all of the post-Christmas mess of every house on every street in every city. Hence, as far as needy and downtrodden, the Christmas garbage man is it. So, this Christmas, feel a little Boxing Day spirit and give the Christmas Garbage Man, from this point known as CGM, something to lighten his holiday woes. So you got a pair of socks instead of the playstation you wanted; drop the CGM a fiver. So your family doesn't understand you and got you a writing set instead of a football, leave the CGM some cookies because he has to be outside and picking up your crumpled poems from the curb. The traditional gift is mince pie, but since few under 54º 40' know what mince is, much less put it into a pie, cookies will do. Celebrate Boxing Day, and make a CGM appreciate leaving his house at 4am the day after the biggest holiday in the Christian world and give a bit. Be nice- such is the message of Boxing Day.