Meet Tio de Nadal
Which in english means, 'The Christmas Log'! He's so super cute. So, here's what you do..in Catalonia that is.
First, you give the gift of the Christmas log. Everyone is so super excited and they love him, they love him to death.
Next, you need to feed your log. Kids stuff little treats into the hollow log day after day, night after night.
Then, you tuck your log in. It's cold in Catalonia, so you need to cover him in a blanket and send him to dreamland.
Finally, on Christmas Morning, the grown up's tell the kids to leave the room and go somewhere in the house to pray that the log will give them lots of gifts. After your prayers you toss your new best friend into the fire and literally tell him to...let's say Defecate...though that's not the word they use. All the kids sit around singing songs to encourage his defecation. If you don't have a fire place, then you beat the poop right out of him. Kids thwack the log with branches to get his poop to come out. When you've beat him long enough then a grown up reaches under the blanket and low and behold the log has pooped Nuts and Candy which are then given to he waiting child and then the next kid comes up to beat the log. This goes on and on until the log finally poo's something like a Salt Herring, a Garlic Head, and Onion, or it just Urinates (the details of which were vague).
Now we here at PTA certainly don't want to poke fun at other cultures holiday traditions, and it should be noted that the Christmas Log only brings small presents and it's the Three Wise Men that bring the presents for under the tree...which is super sweet and is a better reminder of the Savior then flying fat guy. No, we wanted to just give a gentle nudge of a reminder of how everyone is different and everyone is beautiful and everyone loves to come together and tell the kids if they hit that log hard enough we will let you eat it poop. The CHRISTMAS POOP!!
