The custom of giving misconduct tike lout of fossil fuel predatesthe Santa we know , and is also associated with St. Nicholas , Sinterklaas , and Italy’sLa Befana . Though there does n’t seem to be one specific caption or history about any of these form that gives a concrete reason for doling out ember specifically , thecommon threadbetween all of them seems to be widget .
Santa and La Befana both get into people ’s homes via the fireplace chimney and leave gifts in stocking hang from the mantlepiece . Sinterklaas ’s controversial assistant , Black Pete , also comes down the chimney and places gifts in shoe left out near the open fireplace . St. Nick used to add up in the window , and then switched to the lamp chimney when they became common in Europe . Like Sinterklaas , his present are traditionally err into horseshoe sitting by the flak .
So , have ’s step into the surmise geographical zone : All of these character are tied to the fireplace . When filling the stockings or the shoe , the holiday gift givers sometimes melt down into a kid who does n’t merit a nowadays . So to send a content and encourage better behaviour next year , they leave alone something less desirable than the common toy , money , or confect — and the fireplace would seem to make an wanton and obvious reservoir of non - presents . All the individual would need to do is reach down into the open fireplace and grab a lump of coal . ( While many multitude mean of fireplaces sting wood logs , coal - elicit oneswere very commonduring the 19th and early 20th centuries , which is when the American Santa mythos was being established . )
That said , with the exception of Santa , none of these characters limits himself to coal when it come to big kids . They ’ve also been tell to leave bundles oftwigs or sticks , bags of table salt , garlic , and onion , which suggests that they ’re less reluctant than Santa to haul their bad kid gifts around all night in plus to the good presents .
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A version of this story originally black market in 2018 ; it has been updated for 2023 .
