do not know of anyone personally who got a lump or coal or something equal to that at Christmas.except as a joke. I would hope that Christmas would not be a day to take revenge on someone for behavior over the year. no one is perfect. seems like it would be pretty cruel to really do this as punishment. besides it may backfire and the person child or adult who received this "gift" may have a years worth of opportunity to get their revenge.

I have not experienced this since I've always been "a paradigm of virtue" throughout my childhood (to quote today's Garfield strip), however, I've heard stories about kids getting a single lump of coal for Christmas and nothing else.