E.F. Buckles’s Reviews > A Jane Austen Christmas: Regency Christmas Traditions > Status Update

This mentions that Scottish and some Northern English of the era believed the first person across the threshold of the house impacted the family's fortunes in the new year. Given that my family has both English and Scottish (and a few other things) ancestry, I guess that's where my Grammy got the idea that a dark haired man should be the first to cross the threshold in the new year for good luck.