Boxing Day

The fight began early in the month and Boxing Day almost had a new meaning. Only a person who has worked in the hospitality industry or the sea excursion and tourist industry can understand the fight. 

The importance of having Christmas Day off from work is an ongoing and never-ending conflict for anyone working in the service industry, and the reasons for the never-ending boxing match will never end.  

“My kids are so excited for Christmas” is a phrase often tossed out at the workplace, where everyone knows most restaurants and hotels do not close on Christmas day. 

A service person might have a life outside of the shadow of the office, or the boss, but anyone who signs up for a career in tourism must fall into step on the first day. This begins with the all-important question during the job interview: “You don’t mind working on holidays?” 

This is where the conflict and the boxing match begins: No one actually works seven days a week, because everyone must have days off. The selection of these very personal days off is where the politics and rhetoric become the fuel for battles that have nothing to do with “Peace on earth.” 

The first real punch in the fight for Christmas landed just after Thanksgiving with three charter captains and two boats. When the boss announced that he was working one of the boats and the fishing trips were booked with a waiting list, and that Christmas day was to be the busiest day ever, with three charters per boat, instead of two, the other only two captains cringed with the upcoming consequences. 

Captain Jim had seniority and had worked for the charter company for twenty years. His son was serving in the army overseas, but his wife was hinting at a surprise visit on Christmas day. “You must have Christmas day off,” The wife insisted, “Jimmy might be coming home from the Middle East, but just for Christmas! You cannot work if Jimmy comes home. What will he think if he travels halfway around the world, and his dad is not home to greet him?” 

Meanwhile, Captain Tim’s wife and little kids were relentless. “Would daddy be home for Christmas morning? Did everyone not understand that having Christmas off was vital for a family man with young kids? Did Tim not care about his family? How could his boss not understand? Was there another woman?” 

With every passing day, and as Christmas began to loom closer, the captains who were fast friends before the holidays were now ready to find fault with everything about each other. 

How could anyone not have sympathy for a dad on Christmas morning when his little kids were opening presents without their father? How could any decent person not volunteer to work for the sake of the father and the little kids? 

How could anyone not appreciate seniority in the workplace and understand that a son in the armed forces could be coming home for Christmas after two years overseas? How was the importance and priority of the urgent situation not understood? 

Meanwhile, the charter boss, who was also a captain, was on the schedule to work one of the two boats that would be going out on Christmas Day. The boss had a wife and a family, and he was driving one of the two boats. Why could he not have the most important holiday off his wife suggested? Let the hired help work, she insisted. You pay them well! Would you rather be at work than home with your spouse and visiting family? What will my mother think if you abandon your family on Christmas to work on a smelly old fishing boat? 

As early December crept along the calendar, the approach to Christmas became almost unbearable with the stress and worry of who would have Christmas Day off. More importantly, who would have to make the unbearable choice of who would place work before family.  

On the day before Christmas Eve, the weather forecasters declared that there would be terrible thunderstorms and gale wind advisories for the better part of the upcoming week. The maritime authority issued a warning that all vessels were to remain in port until the stormy weather was past. 

When the captains of the little fleet realized everyone could have Christmas with their families, the fight that was brewing was over, and the boss made the judgment that no amount of money was worth tearing friendships apart and for the next year, the charter business would not be open on Christmas Day. 

When a particular Marco Beach Boy first saw Boxing Day on the Calendar after Christmas, he believed there would be a fight and a boxing match somewhere, and twenty years later, a conflict among friends almost led to much more than a holiday story from long ago. 

In the tenth century, Good King Wenceslas of Bohemia was out on the day after Christmas, saw a peasant working in the cold and snow, and took pity on him. The king then went home, boxed up a treasure of good food and the best wine, and brought it to the man at his modest doorstep as a belated Christmas gift. The day after Christmas then became Boxing Day because of the good King’s boxes of cheer, and the practice of giving boxes with gifts has been a tradition ever since. 

Happy Boxing Day, Marco, Goodland, and Isles of Capri!