Boxing Day: Saint Stephen, Sales, and Spin Sucks

Today’s guest post is by Lindsay Bell.

How y’all doing today?

Satiated?

Stuffed full of turkey (or tofurkey)?

Spinning from chocolate overload?

Yes, it’s the day after Christmas 2012, an event that crept up on us with the stealth of a hungry jungle cat (at least it did in this household), and BOOM, just like that, it’s over.

But it’s not really over.

At least not up here in the Great White North.

Giving thank once again to our British colonial roots, we get an extra holiday over the holidays. Today is Boxing Day!

Attention Shoppers!

And if the term “Boxing Day” conjures up images of frantic shoppers lining up in the cold and dark to snag a flat screen TV that was only ten dollars cheaper last week…you would be correct.

Throughout the years, our Boxing Day became the U.S. version of Black Friday. A time for crazy sales and crazier people. Most stores won’t perform any transaction that doesn’t contain the words “cash or charge?” in it, so leave the tacky sweater that old aunt Gladys gave you for Christmas at home. No exchanges. No customer service at all, really.

But, as is usually the case, Boxing Day had quite benevolent beginnings before we bastardized it and turned it into a day of marketing, malls, and mayhem.

The Feast of St. Stephen

In one of my favorite Christmas carols, Good King Wenceslas looks out, on the Feast of Stephen (December 26th). The snow was deep, the frost was cruel. And when he sees a poor man gathering gathering winter fuel, he calls for his page to prepare bounty for the poor, and they head out into that dark, freezing, snowbound night to deliver it to the less fortunate.

That celebration continued, always on the day after Christmas – the Feast of St. Stephen – and eventually evolved to include giving money and/or Christmas boxes filled with gifts to charitable institutions, needy individuals, and people in service jobs.

In the Spirit of Boxing Day

Personally, I don’t DO Boxing Day. It’s an insanity I won’t subject myself to. Nor would I subject the crowds of shoppers to my insanity, because I would surely have harsh words for someone were I to participate.

However, today I am doing Boxing Day – in that, I would like to ask for a small gift from each of you, our amazing Spin Sucks community (or the crazies, as Gini Dietrich calls you).

Help us be the best we can for all of you – and let us know what you would like to hear more about. What trends or topics are you particularly excited about for 2013? What areas of PR or marketing do you want to learn more about? What subject would you like to see explored in depth, through webinars for example? Is there a person you would love to see interviewed? What have we been missing? And how can we improve?

Please leave your thoughts and comments below. And help us become the best that we can be – for you – in 2013.

I’d like to personally wish everyone a continued safe and festive end to your holiday season, and a safe and joyous New Year!

Lindsay Bell is the content director at Arment Dietrich, and works in Toronto. A former TV producer, she’s a strong advocate of three minutes or less of video content. She has a cool kid, a patient husband, and two annoying cats.