Lloyd Alter over at TreeHugger.com went on a little bit of a (thoroughly enjoyable) rant about Boxing Day today. As he noted in his article, Boxing Day is the “English tradition of putting together a box of money, gifts, hand-me-downs and even leftover food for servants who had to work Christmas day and got the next day off to spend with their families.”
His article was lamenting the fact that Boxing Day in the UK, Canada, and Australia has become a bit too much like “Black Friday” in the U.S. – a day of consumerism on steroids. It was his last paragraph that particularly caught my attention, though:
“Perhaps it is time to bring back the best of the holiday; to celebrate equity and equality. The idea of boxing up the leftovers and the sweaters we don’t need (or the ones that are replaced) for delivery to the homeless and hungry might not be a bad tradition to start. Perhaps it is time to bring Boxing Day to the USA.”
Monika Wiela and Biz Debnath agree with you Lloyd! With their Give Back Box program, the spirit of Boxing Day has arrived in the U.S. Basically, people can fill their empty boxes with clothes, shoes and accessories, print a free shipping label at the Give Back Box website, and UPS or USPS will deliver the items to Goodwill.
There are currently about 20 well-known retailers partnering in the project – including NewEgg, Amazon, and Overstock – encouraging us to participate in a “boxing day” at any time of the year.
The idea makes wonderful sense to me. Not only is the Give Back Box project reviving the true charitable tradition of Boxing Day, it benefits our environment by keeping those boxes (and the clothing being donated) out of our landfills. Give Back Box will even send you a receipt for a tax deduction. For more information, and to print the free shipping label, visit GiveBackBox.com
