Today is Boxing Day, an official holiday in Canada and Great Britain, and an unofficial observance here in the States.

Boxing Day is a day for returning and exchanging unwanted gifts — the presents which, for whatever reason, don’t fit the recipient. It’s also a last chance to shop for Christmas bargains — Post-Christmas closeout merchandise, incredible markdowns, available while it lasts. It’s one last occasion to flock to the malls and stores to balloon that January credit card bill.

It’s one of the final gestures of what has become our modern Christmas ritual — a season which, sadly, seems to begin a little earlier each year and end earlier as well. Our modern rituals seem mostly about shopping for bargains, and the nation’s economic health is measured by our seasonal consumerism. Will Black Friday save the retail season?

Our sympathies go out to the retail store manager whose Christmas tree is already tossed to the curb before sundown on the day of Christ’s birth. Clearly, he or she has had enough of the hustle and bustle of today’s retail world. Boxing Day for them is just another day in the trenches.

Few dispose of the tree as quickly, yet it does seem we spend the better part of two months buying Christmas and less than a day “doing” Christmas.

It wasn’t always this way. And it shouldn’t be this way — at least, not totally.

Consider the carol “Twelve Days of Christmas,” a reference to the Christmastide, the days spanning from Christmas Day until Jan. 5, the eve of the Epiphany on Jan. 6, the day the wise men presented gifts to the infant Jesus, according to tradition. Jan. 5 used to be known commonly as Twelfth Night.

Then there are the Mexican traditions, beginning Dec. 12 with the feast of La Guadalupana — the Virgin of Guadalupe; ending Jan. 6 with the Epiphany; and encompassing the nine-day Posadas, or house parties. They lump the entire four-week period into the “Guadalupe-Reyes Marathon.”

Go back even farther in history, to the roots of Christmas giving. In keeping with the gifts of the wise men, neighbors and relatives in the Middle Ages inventoried their harvest and other goods acquired in the previous year; and they shared their surplus with each other, helping to assure the entire village survives the harsh winter as comfortably as possible.

It can be presumed gratitude was closer to the heart back then because the gifts were more essential to personal survival and comfort. There were no Playstations.

By some world standards, the Christmas season is just beginning; by others we’re in the midst of Christmas.

That should be good news, for one big reason.

People are kinder at Christmas. They’re more compassionate and patient — unless, of course, they’re Christmas shopping. Maybe that alone is a good reason to extend Christmas — the giving season — well beyond the shopping season.

Giving and gratitude shouldn’t go out of season. Christmas is the ideal occasion to rekindle the sentiments and keep them burning all year round.