One of the many small mysteries I hoped to resolve when I first moved to England was this: when British people sang "A-Wassailing We'll Go," where exactly was it they went and what did they do when they got there?

Throughout an American upbringing I had been hearing this song every Christmas without ever finding anyone who had the faintest idea of how to go about the obscure and enigmatic business of wassailing. Given the perky lilt of the carol and the party spirit in which it was always sung, it suggested to my youthful imagination rosy-cheeked women bearing flagons of wine in a scene of general merriment taking place before a blazing yule log in a hall decked with holly, and with this in mind I looked forward to my first English Christmas with a certain frank anticipation.

So you may conceive my disappointment when Christmas came and went and not only was there no wassailing to be seen in England, but no one I encountered there was any the wiser as to its arcane and venerable secrets (though that didn't stop them from singing the song for all they were worth, more's the pity).

In nearly 20 years in England, I never did find anyone who had ever gone a-wassailing. Nor, while we are at it, did I encounter any mumming, still less any hodening (a kind of organized group begging for coins with a view to buying drinks at the nearest pub-another sad and unaccountable loss to a civilized Yuletide), or many of the other traditions of an English Christmas that were expressly promised in the lyrics of carols and the novels of authors like Jane Austen and Charles Dickens.

It wasn't until I happened on a copy of T.G. Crippen's scholarly and ageless Christmas and Christmas Lore, published in London in 1923, that I finally found that wassail was originally a salutation. From the Old Norse ves heil, it is related to the hale in the expression "hale and hearty" and means "in good health." In Anglo-Saxon times, according to Crippen, it was customary for someone offering a drink to say "Wassail!" and for the recipient to respond "Drinkhail!" and for the participants to repeat the exercise until comfortably horizontal. It is clear from Crippen's tome that in 1923 this and many other ancient and intriguing Christmas customs were still commonly encountered in Britain. Now, alas, they appear to be gone for good.

Even without these, Christmas in England remains a very special and singularly well-managed occasion, and largely because of a glorious tradition that hasn't, thank goodness, been lost with time. I refer to Boxing Day.

Boxing Day, as you perhaps know, is December 26 and it is very nearly as dear to English hearts as the day that precedes it. Indeed, there are those of us who think it is altogether superior since it doesn't involve long, perplexed hours spent on the floor trying to assemble dollhouses and bicycles from instructions written in Taiwanese, or the uttering of false professions of gratitude to Auntie Flo for the gift of a sport shirt bearing the patterns you get when you rub your eyes too hard. It is a day, in short, that has most of the advantages of Christmas (lots of good food, general good will towards all, a chance to doze in an armchair) without any of the attendant drawbacks.

Curiously, for all its venerated glory, no one knows quite how Boxing Day came to be or why it is so called. It appears to be a relatively recent development-the Oxford English Dictionary can trace the term back no further than 1849-though, like so many Christmas traditions, its roots lie much deeper. Its origins may have something to do with church alms boxes, which were opened at Christmas and their contents distributed to the poor. What is certain is that at least as far back as the 1500s, and possibly earlier, it was customary for servants, apprentices, shopkeepers, and others in a subservient position to receive year-end gifts of money from those they had faithfully served for the previous 12 months. These small gratuities were put in an earthenware container, called a "box," which was broken open at Christmastime and the proceeds used to fund a bit of high living.

Since most servants had to wait upon their masters on Christmas Day, their own Christmas celebrations were deferred until the day after. Hence December 16 became the day on which their boxes were opened, and hence Boxing Day.