An early rant about Boxing Day and life. LIfe is too short to be this grouchy about that time of the year.
So this is the first boxing day I have spent in Ottawa in 20 years. I grew up in Montreal, and Boxing Day was simple, all stores opened at noon, and away you go. I kept hearing about HUGE SALES and GREAT BARGAINS and people lined up for blocks and over $1.4B spent today alone (the second most significant day of buying in the year). All I can say is?
I went out this morning to get some milk and bought some storage containers at 1/2 price ($1.49, great buy). We went to Staples, Wal-Mart, and Indigo along with a grocery store, and it felt like a Sunday. Wal-Mart looked a little whacky, but the craziest thing I saw was the RETURNs line! Why would you go to a store to return something on Boxing Day unless you had no life and wanted to spend a long time in line? A lot of stores don’t even allow returns on Boxing Day, so what is the point?
No big whoop here. No huge bargains, no big-screen TVs, I think we bought some cheap Christmassy tea towels, and I looked at the “Big Hauler” train set at Loblaws, but that is about it. Boxing Day? Please leave it to the pugilists!
Previous Boxing Days?
I have written on the topic of Boxing Day a few times.
- Boxing Day? Big Bloody Deal! was my first rant about the day. In 2006 there were sales, but were they that exciting?
- Let the Boxing Quarter Begin does sum up the entire concept of Boxing “day”, it just keeps going on.
- Just because it’s on sale, another classic rant about impulse buying the day after Christmas, 2008.
- Holiday Cheer Volume 4 got lazy in 2009 and just put out a list of posts from that year.
- Carnival of Money Stories: Happy Pseudo Boxing Day! Back in the day when Blogging Carnivals were all the rage (2009).
- Sales and What is the Price?!? started to figure out the connection between Black Friday and Boxing Day sales. Neither really saved you much, did they? Not really in 2010.
- Happy Pseudo Boxing Day was just really a best of kind of post, no real commentary on Boxing Day itself.
- Mayhem and Sunday’s Best (on Monday) it seems that Boxing Day was an excuse for me to post a best of posts list? This article seems to prove the point?
- Advice for the day in 2012? Don’t buy crap, which is good advice any time. If something you need is on sale, buy it, if not, don’t!
- One Thing You Can Buy on the day is to buy something you need.
- Mayhem is always present on Boxing Day, but remember just because it is on sale, doesn’t mean you have to buy it.
- The 12 Days of Christmas Debt is something to think about on Boxing Day? Maybe think about that at Thanksgiving?
- Weirdest Boxing Day Ever? What do you expect during a Pandemic, I suppose?
- Happy Boxing Day 2023! Will we return to the mayhem we are used to?
I would love to see boxing day in canada. I wonder if it’s not as frenzied as Black Friday in the US. DH spent boxing day in canada, a former canuck he loved it. Of course now Black Friday is dear to his heart.