Vine Maple Place is a local non-profit organization bringing hope, help, and housing
to homeless children and their families. Each year, Palmer Coking Coal Company has
made a tradition of providing gift-wrapped “lumps of coal” to raise funds for Vine
Maple Place and warm the hearts of the less fortunate.
In traditional English folklore, a lump of coal was left in the stocking hung over
the fireplace of those who’d been naughty the previous year. The tradition of a
lump of coal may date back to Italy. On the evening of the day after Christmas children
would be visited by a good witch named Strega Buffana (derived from the word ‘epiphany’)
who flew around Italy on a broom and left treats for good children, but lumps of
coal for naughty children. In Denmark, children put a shoe out on Christmas night
with good children receiving chocolate and naughty children getting coal. The Scottish
New Year’s tradition holds that if a tall dark stranger comes through your door
carrying a lump of coal, it is said to be good luck. Another tradition claims the
lump of coal is the only fuel to warm eternity for those who’ve misbehaved.
If you’re looking for a way to “warm a soul” this Christmas, please stop by 31407
Highway 169 in Black Diamond to pick up a gift-wrapped piece of coal and make a
donation to Vine Maple Place. PCCC no longer sells coal but instead provides landscape
products including sand, gravel, rock, topsoil, beauty bark, play chips, lava rock,
red cinders, compost and Nutra-mulch to homeowners and contractors alike. For directions
call 425-432-4700 or visit their website at palmercc.com
