Why do naughty kids get coal

But as per research they will find that further back there are other cultures that use coal as a sort of punishment. According to the tale of La Befana from Italy, the witch appears in early Januaryand in a similar fashion to Clause she enters people's houses through Chimneys and keyholes. Good Kids get candy and toys while naughty kids get coal fro La Bafana. The concept of coal as punishment in relation to Santa Clause started appearing more and more with the turn of the 20th century.

In 'The Toy-Makers strike, which was written by Ruth Catherine Wood in , she talks about how Santa's elves go on strike and a naughty boy gets a huge doll and a sweet little girl ends up with a lump of coal. Similarly, in Myron Adams' short story "A Prince of Good Fellows," the fact that a good-hearted boy named Tom receives coal in his stocking leads to confusion. And, as the story goes, if you've been well-behaved, that means that you can expect presents under the tree.

But if you've been naughty, then you might not end up with anything but a stocking filled with a lump of coal on Christmas. For decades, parents have warned their children that coal is what Santa gives kids on Christmas who are not so nice. But the question still remains: Why coal? In truth, the legend of Santa Claus did not always involve him bringing coal to naughty children. In the 19th century, for example, there was much more emphasis on how joyful Santa was and how he rewarded good behavior.

As you can see in Clement Clarke Moore's legendary poem from the era " 'Twas the Night Before Christmas ," nowhere is there any talk of Santa giving naughty kids coal for Christmas. And even in one of Moore's tales of Santa Claus that does involve punishment , the festive figure leaves "a long, black, birchen road" for naughty kids—not coal. Going further back, however, you'll find legends from other cultures that involve coal as punishment. For example, one famous Italian tale involves a witch known as La Befana.

She appears in early January, flying around on a broom rather than in a sleigh and gets into people's homes via chimneys and keyholes. Nicholas is a man who inherited a large sum of money and, instead of keeping it for himself, used it to help others. The legend goes that Nicholas dropped some of his gold coins down the chimney as a gift to help the family, the individual coins falling into stockings of the daughters as they hung by the fire to dry.

The tradition of putting oranges or clementines into stockings is alleged to have come from this story, with the round, orange fruit symbolising the gold coins that were said to have originally been left as a gift in the stockings by St.

Much like the tradition of putting oranges or clementines in stockings, the origin of the idea of leaving a lump of coal instead is quite hard to trace. Historian Sean Patrick Adams explains in his book Home Fires that the use and adoption of coal was only just beginning in the s in domestic environments.

This dates to around the same time as the legend of St.