Where did the tradition of giving a lump of coal for Christmas originate?
by 
Ed the Jetpacking Headbanger
ANSWERS: 6
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I haven't heard of this associated with Christmas, but New Year. If your First Foot - the first person to enter your home after the the year turned had with him (yes, it had to be a him, preferably tall and handsome - I got by just being tall) a lump of coal and a silver coin you would have enough heat and cash throughout the coming year.
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Yep, it's a NewYear tradition: symbolic gifts such as salt, coal, shortbread, whisky, and black bun (a rich fruit cake) intended to bring different kinds of luck to the householder. Food and drink are then given to the guests. This may go on throughout the early hours of the morning and well into the next day (although modern days see people visiting houses until the 3 January). The first-foot is supposed to set the luck for the rest of the year, so a tall, handsome, dark-haired man bearing a gift is strongly preferred. According to popular folklore, a man with dark hair was welcomed because he was assumed to be a fellow Scotsman; a blond or red-haired stranger was assumed to be an unwelcome Norseman.
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Among the Internet sites I looked up in order to research this question, there seems to be a general agreement that this tradition originated in Italy, where a kindly old witch visits children on the eve of the Epiphany (January 6th) and leave toys and candy for the children in every house. If the child has been naughty during the previous year, she leaves a lump of coal instead of candy. I guess the tradition migrated to the stocking hung up on Christmas Eve as a sort of natural migration, and especially since the secularisation of Christmas has pretty much eliminated celebration of the Epiphany except in a few churches.
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It started in italy; from all the reserch i've done, it turns out to be that a mother or father would put coal in naughty kids stockings
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Here in Scotland it's a New Year tradition... visitors to your house should bring a lump of coal for good luck. We have a saying as well to go with it: "Lang may yer lum reek!" (translated: "long may your chimney smoke.") I always assumed that it goes back to old pagan fire ceremonies... in lots of places in Celtic Scotland large bonfires were lit at new year. They still do one at a place called Biggar about 10 miles from where I stay. It has it's own website! http://www.biggarbonfire.org.uk/
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Coal is supposed to be for the good kids. When many families were poor, finding a lump of coal in the ashes of your fire place meant a warm Christmas.
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