Catalonia’s Version Of Father Christmas Is Leaving People Baffled

It's always interesting to discover the Christmas traditions and versions of Santa from different countries around the world.

Austria has Krampus - the monster who punishes little kids, Italy has the friendly gift-bearing witch Befana, but it's Catalonia's Christmas present-giver who has got the internet feeling an intense sense of confusion.

In place of a benevolent old man with a beard or a creepy little demon, they instead have a tree trunk that poos out presents. Yep, you read that right.

Tió de Nadal translates as 'Christmas log', and no - that's not referring to a cake, or even your post turkey trip to the loo.

On this aesthetically painful diagram that a Twitter user has found, it is actually a 'tree trunk that defecates presents'.

Sharing the diagram, the user wrote simply - and fairly: "Damn Catalonia, what's wrong with you?"

It's clear that a sense of pure bafflement then dawned on non-Catalonia residing social media users - especially when, as many noted, it doesn't stop there.

One person kindly informed us: "It doesn't just defecate presents. You have to beat it with a stick while singing it a song to make it poop."

Of course, we had a look into it.

The logs often have a smiling face, and in the days leading up to Christmas, the log is looked after by children hoping that they will be rewarded by it 'defecating' presents on the big day.

Maybe look at it as much weirder version of leaving out milk and mince pies for Santa? Hey, I'm just trying to make sense of this.

After doing more research into it, there are actually lyrics to said song that kids sing to the log in order to make it poo. What a sentence.

After searching the internet, and quickly regretting it, one of the songs that Catalans sing to their Christmas log to make it poo out their presents goes as follows:

S***, log,
S*** Nougats
Hazelnuts and mato cheese,
If you don't s*** well,
I'll hit you with a stick,
S***, log!

While Iceland is ahead of the game, with its Christmas lads.

The Icelandic Jólasveinar (meaning Santa Clauses) leave presents in your shoes if you leave them on windowsills.

Topics: World News, Weird

Amelia Ward

Amelia is a journalist at LADbible. After studying journalism at Liverpool John Moores and Salford Uni (don't ask), she went into PR and then the world of music. After a few years working on festivals and events, she went back to her roots. In her spare time, Amelia likes music, Liverpool FC, and spending good, quality time with her cat, Paul. You can contact Amelia at [email protected].

@ameliasward