Naughty children shouldn't be given coal for Christmas.
Naughty children shouldn't get coal for Christmas
It is a tradition to give misbehaving kids a lump of coal in their stocking but the "outdated" practice has been criticised by leading paediatrician Dr. Tamsin Holland Brown.
In the Christmas issue of the British Medical Journal, she writes: "The suggestion that children on the naughty list only deserve coal is outdated and potentially harmful to the environment and children's health."
With the ongoing war in Ukraine and cost of living crisis causing concern, Dr. Holland Brown – together with her daughters and co-authors Lilac and Marigold – suggests fostering connections between the generations "might combat anxiety" better than a lump of coal.
Dr. Holland Brown also explained that gifting coal means "the adults are the naughty ones" as it is a non-renewable fossil fuel that makes climate change worse.