Turn Boxing Day on its Head: Upcycle All Those Empty Boxes

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We had a fun time this year hearing from beijingkids readers about how they have or have not adjusted traditions to celebrate Christmas in Beijing, which you can read in our new December issue. Their stories reminded me of one of my favorite parties we ever hosted: a last-minute Boxing Day party where we invited preschool friends to play in a castle made out of all the boxes from presents received the day before.

Boxing Day is also called Saint Stephens Day, and my father Stephen always made sure we knew that. Some tie the name of the day to alms boxes in the Middle Ages, which were collected in honor of Saint Stephen, whereas others refer back to the “Christmas box” given to servants on the holiday, then left the day after with a box filled with gifts, money, and sometimes leftover food they could bring back to their families.

We’re not very religious in our family, nor do we have servants who need a day off. We just thought it would be fun to use all the boxes from a generous holiday to create a castle and tunnels for our kids and their friends.

The final product from that first Boxing Day party.

So it was that with gift boxes, old moving boxes, duct tape, and our friends, we created a little fantasy world in our own home. There were spots to hide and many crawl spaces where adults could not go, and the kids loved it. It was a small party, given how people were tired from their holiday festivities, yet so much fun. We drew bricks on the castle and created our own plaques and coats of arms to match the swords and shields in our toybox. The castle even lasted a week after Boxing Day, after one too many dragons attacked it and we dismantled it for the recycling bin.

Our castle was quite elaborate, but it doesn’t need to be. Here are some ways to start on the quest towards upcycling gift boxes into a fun fort where kids can play.

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You don’t need a whole wall to draw your designs.

1. Plan your design together with the kids

Will it have a drawbridge? Turrets? Windows? Multiple rooms or one large throne room (much easier to accomplish with the wee ones)? Draw it out! What is the story behind your castle? Who lives there? All great questions to ask that will inform your design.

What visuals make a castle a castle?

2. Decide which elements of a castle mean the most to your little knights

Ramparts are the easiest way to identify a castle versus just a big building. And they’re very easy to cut, even with small hands! So if you’ve taped your castle walls firmly and don’t know why it’s missing that certain look to define it, I’d suggest you look to the tops of the boxes and start cutting.

It might be a good day to graduate an older child from those safety scissors to real ones.

3. Use strong tape and scissors

It could also serve as a good time for a refresher on safety using scissors. You may need to have an exacto knife handy for the windows and such, but there is no reason kids of all ages can’t work on the cooler parts, like cutting a triangle for a turret or banners to hang from its walls.

Be inspired by the best of Beijing’s history.

4. Make it your own kind of castle 

With so much history and beautiful architecture and design in our own Beijing, why not take the opportunity to add more history to your upcycling project? What a very cool way to learn all about your neighborhood. It could even turn into a day outing for the family to make sketches and re-design your upcycled kingdom.

Do you have a special post-holiday tradition? Let us know in the comments!

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Photos: Cindy Marie Jenkins, Unsplash 

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