When Santa got stuck up the chimney, he swapped bodies with the chimney. Santa became the chimney, and the chimney became Santa. With horror, Santa felt his flesh give way to brick. With confusion, the chimney felt its bricky structure soften into flesh.
Santa, now a chimney, was essentially stuck there for the next year to think about what he'd done.
Meanwhile, the chimney, now in the body of a fat, jolly man, did its best to make people happy. It did so by giving everyone on Santa’s list the most delightful gift it could think of – a lump of coal.
Weirdly, no-one seemed all that keen on the whole coal thing. As a chimney, it knew first-hand of coal's incredible usefulness and value. Imagine – a Christmas gift you could actually use. To heat your house, of all things. What could be better than that?
But as every man, woman and child unwrapped their individual lump of coal, their faces fell. All smiles disappeared. Laughter faded to silence. “Coal?” they thought. “What am I supposed to do with coal?”
The chimney just couldn't understand. After all, coal was more scarce than ever. There would eventually be wars over things like coal. Rare materials. There had already been many wars over oil, and gold, and souls. Coal seemed like a logical next step.
But why, when they opened their presents of coal, did everyone look so sad? Didn't they know the immense value of the thing they held in their hands?