We have a tradition up here in Canada (on the 26th of December) called Boxing Day where legions of bargain hunters brave the cold and venture out to the malls to grab large TVs, video game consoles, DVDs and clothes at fat discounts.
It seems like the day originated in the U.K. when the rich people would hand out day old leftovers from the Christmas feast to their servants and slaves in a box as payment for the past year. It has now come to its natural evolution as a day of insane discount shopping.
Boxing Day is a relatively new phenomenon in Canada as shopping has expanded and grown in the past few decades. For example, in Quebec, stores have only been allowed to open on the 26th for the past 15 years or so, and even now they are only allowed to open at 1:00 PM. There are still a few municipalities in Canada that do not allow boxing day sales.
The majority of Canada does enjoy Boxing Day sales and now this phenomenon has expanded to not only Boxing Week sales, but some stores offer “pre-boxing day” sales BEFORE Christmas. And the insanity is complete.
Boxing Day is quite similar to Black Friday in the US, but comes at the end of the holiday shopping season instead of at the beginning. If the two shopping extravaganzas are combined, they form a nice set of “book ends” to the holiday shopping madness.
I found this clip on Youtube to give you a sense of the Canadian Boxing Day holiday shopping madness. Notice how incredibly crowded it is, yet in a very Canadian way it is very orderly. People are patient, lining up and probably saying “excuse me” and “sorry” a lot as they move about the crowds. 
Enjoy! (Click on the picture to see the video…)
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