Forget the carols: Getting coal for Christmas can actually be moving and wonderful. /u/watchforsnakes is from Appalachia, where mines dominate the local economy. To give me a sense of her hometown, I got two eerily beautiful pieces of "stoker coal from a local processing plant," as well as several homemade Christmas tree ornaments from the town's Old Fashioned Christmas Bazaar. "Most families have had to learn to make their own quilts, clothes, and other goods to survive," she writes. My favorite item, of course, is the Reddit alien crocheted by /u/watchforsnakes herself!