First Footing

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First-footing
The most widespread national custom is that of first-footing which starts immediately after the bells. This involves being the first person to enter the house of a friend or neighbour, thus becoming the first foot in the door. Hence, the person doing the first-footing is known as the first-foot.
Gifts
The first-foot is expected to bring suitable gifts to ensure good luck throughout the year. These may include:

• A lump of coal - for warmth.
• Cakeor biscuits - to ensure the household never goes hungry. The cake is often a very rich and moist fruit cake known as Black Bun.
• Salt - to bring wealth.

When presenting the lump of coal, the first-foot should say, 'Lang may yer lum reek', a traditional Scots good luck blessing for the long dark nights, literally translated as 'Long may your chimney smoke.'
Nowadays, however, gifts usually consist of a bottle9 and a box of chocolates or other sweets.
The First-foot
It is important for the good luck of the household that the first-foot is a suitable person; the ideal first-foot is a tall, dark-haired stranger - this harks back to the days of the Vikings, when a blond-haired stranger arriving in the middle of the night wasn't usually good news. Of course, these days, it is more likely that the first-foot will be known to those being visited, but as long as he's tall and dark, that's okay. Some traditions say he should be handsome as well, but that's probably just a general wish on the part of the female members of the visited households. Come to that, there's no reason nowadays why a woman can't be the first-foot, although some traditionalists do insist that female first-foots are unlucky.
First-foots don't always stop at just visiting one house. Sometimes just one person will go on to another house; more often a group of friends will go round each other's houses. The first-foot may be the same person at each door or they may take turns; the only important thing is that there must be gifts for each house visited. The first-footing, which quickly becomes second, third, or more-footing, often continues well into the morning of 1st January, with participants joining in and dropping out throughout the night - and the next day.
Of course, you may think that the first-foot is getting a bit of a raw deal, giving gifts to each house he visits. Not so. In exchange for his bringing you luck, it is traditional to offer him food and drink. The drink will obviously be tailored to the person, but if you want to be really traditional, offer him a Het Pint (a combination of ale, nutmeg and whisky) or at least a dram of whisky, preferably a large one.
What if you don't get a first-foot?
You might live somewhere out-of-the-way, or your house might be missed out for some reason, or maybe you're away visiting family or friends. For whatever reason you haven't been first-footed, you don't want to miss out on the luck, so what do you do? Opinions vary on this, but it's quite common in rural areas to leave a lump of coal outside the door so that when you next go into the house you can first-foot yourself. You may not be tall or dark and you're certainly not a stranger but at least the house should be blessed with good luck.