One of the interesting Christmas traditions

We are learning about all of the Spanish Christmas traditions and doing our best to embrace them as we are making this our home. One of the more interesting Christmas traditions thus far is the Tio de Nadal. It is a Catalan tradition where a few days before Christmas, the log with a face and a red hat magically appears in your house. The children are supposed to take care of the log and feed it everyday until Christmas Eve. When Christmas arrives, the Tio's blanket is put over him, the children sing a song and hit the Tio with a stick and it poops out presents that the children find under the blanket. Yes, this is true.

There are many different sizes of Tios. Some are tiny like little toy soldiers and others are as big as a shoe box. They are all over the place. We saw one today in a store and there was a bowl of potato chips in front of it. I guess they are feeding it for the Christmas defecation! There was a giant Tio in a square the other day and kids were singing the song and hitting it with a stick. It was fascinating. 

Of course, we bought our own Tio de Nadal, but not sure we will feed it. It sure looks cute though.

This is a video I took of the Giant Tio being hit in the square by the kids!

Here is our Tio!