A Somewhat Funny Yet Deep Thought

Today when I was working, a thought occured to me which I kind of laughed at but then thought more on the subject. The simply regarded the whole "If you are a good girl/boy, then Santa will give you toys for Christmas. However, if you are bad, then Santa will put coal in your stocking."

What I thought was that what if a child was being a bad child on purpose so they would get the coal in their stocking, just so they and their families would be warm? It also makes me wonder how many children have tried this in the world.

What are your thoughts about this and the quote? Is it misleading? Does it contain some truth?

Wow, Trenzer, that's deep!

When I read the old saying about getting coal in your stocking, my first thought was that it was just a fun old saying. I think the majority of people today probably heat with some other method, but I'm sure there are those who probably do use this still. When you think of it like that, it really saddens my heart that a child would have to worry about being warm instead of having toys, enjoying Christmas, etc. But it happens all across the world, that's life, I suppose you could say. I certainly do think it is something a child might do to provide for their family, themselves, if necessary.

Coal's pretty useful; I wonder why it was associated with being naughty? You'd think the punishment would be to get flat out nothing for Christmas .

Lemina wrote:

Coal's pretty useful; I wonder why it was associated with being naughty? You'd think the punishment would be to get flat out nothing for Christmas .

It got me to wondering about that too, Lemina, so I did some searching and here's what I found out:

http://www.sicilianculture.com/folklore/christmas.htm

And as for the usefullness of coal (on which you are absolutely correct Lemina), I also found this fun link regarding coal and Santa:

http://blogs.discovery.com/news_earth/2 ... al-in.html


All Very interesting, I thought.