Although it is acceptable in many places for the first-foot to be a resident of the house, they must not be in the house at the stroke of midnight in order to be the first-foot. Thus, going out of the house after midnight and then coming back into the same house is not considered to be first-footing. It is said to be desirable for the first-foot to be a tall, dark-haired male; a female or fair-haired male is in some places regarded as unlucky. In Worcestershire, luck is ensured by stopping the first carol singer who appears and leading him through the house. In Yorkshire, it must always be a male who enters the house first, but his fairness is no impediment. The first-foot usually brings several gifts, including perhaps a coin, bread, salt, coal, evergreen, and/or a drink, which represent financial prosperity, food, flavour, warmth, long-life, and good cheer respectively. In Scotland, first-footing has traditionally been more elaborate than in England, involving subsequent entertainment. Whenever a public ritual is suppressed many continue it at another date. Many customs of first-footing parallel those of Samhain, the Celtic new year, for which fuel was gathered, food collected by reciting verses door-to-door, and a ritual fire lit to welcome crossing the threshold to the next world. “Quite a degree of transferability of customs across the period between Samhain... Christmas and New Year. Whether this represents a natural tendency to transfer celebrations that brighten the dull winter months or a concerted religious effort to dissipate or transform wholly pagan festivities remains unclear, but a combination of factors is likely.”
On the Isle of Man the practice of first-footing has also been a long held tradition. A.W. Moore in his book Folklore of the Isle of Man described how the practice differed from Scotland:
It was considered fortunate if the qualtagh were a person, of dark complexion, as meeting a person of light complexion at this time, especially if his or her hair is red, would be thought very unlucky. It is curious that the superstition in Scotland is the exact reverse of this.
Traditionally, young boys would visit the houses in their local area on New Year's Day. They would recite a poem in Manx at every house and then a boy with dark hair was considered to be lucky for the household and he was given the bestfood and drink the inhabitants had to share. The New Year Blessing in Manx Ollick ghennal erriu as bleïn feer vie, Seihll as slaynt da’n slane lught thie. Bea as gennallys eu bio ry-cheilley, Shee as graih eddyr mraane as deiney. Cooid as cowryn, stock as stoyr. Palçhey phuddase, as skaddan dy-liooar. Arran as caashey, eeym as roayrt. Baase, myr lugh, ayns uhllin ny soalt. Cadley sauçhey tra vees shiu ny lhie, As feeackle y jargan, nagh bee dy mie. The New Year Blessing in English A merry Christmas on ye, and a very good year, Long life and health to the whole household. Your life and mirth living together, Peace and love between women and men. Goods and wealth, stock and store, Plenty potatoes and enough herring. Bread and cheese, butter and beef, Death, like a mouse, in the stackyard of the barn. Sleeping safely when you lie, and the flea’s tooth, may it not be well.
There are practices similar to first-footing outside the British Isles. For example, it exists in Sweden, where having a fair-skinned, blond first-foot is considered the highest blessing whereas darker persons are considered bad luck. In a similar Greek tradition called pothariko, also called podariko, it is believed that the first person to enter the house on New Year's Eve brings either good or bad luck. Many households to this day keep this tradition and specially select who first enters the house. After the first-foot, the lady of the house serves the guests with Christmas treats or gives them an amount of money to ensure that good luck will come in the new year. A similar tradition exists in the country of Georgia, where the person is called mekvle.
