Christmas traditions back home always include a tree decorated with an eclectic, treasured assortment of ornaments collected over the years; stockings hand-stitched by Christine and my sister, Lesley, hung by the chimney with care; lots of presents—always way too many presents—stacked under the tree; a Christmas Eve service at church followed by a viewing of “The Muppet Christmas Carol” with our daughter, Catey; and happy times with our adult children and their spouses.

We knew we would miss all of those things this year. But a huge part of travel is exploring new customs and traditions, and being in Spain this time of year just might bring us in contact with a pooping log.

A pre-trip internet search for Spanish Christmas traditions introduced us to the Tió de Nadal (Christmas log), or more familiarly, Caga Tió (literally poop log). It’s a round log decorated with a smiley face and with stick legs. Children care for it by covering it with a blanket and giving it food and water every night. On Christmas day they beat it with sticks while singing songs imploring Caga Tió to defecate goodies.

When the songs are finished and the log thoroughly beaten, the blanket is whipped away revealing an assortment of sweets and nuts.

The Caga Tió is a tradition in Catalonia and we’re in Andalusia, but surely we could find one somewhere. We dutifully looked in every stall in the many Christmas markets we came across in Sevilla, Cordoba, and Granada, but alas no pooping logs.

But we have seen an abundance of belenes (nativity scenes). They are a big deal in this part of the world, ranging from simple manger scenes to elaborate recreations of Bethlehem. We saw the “Giant Crib” in Vila Real de Santo Antonio, Portugal, which claims to be the largest in the country. It takes more than a month to assemble the massive scene that includes more than 5,000 figures, many of them animated. We passed on the one in Seville that always had a line that stretched around the block. We saw the one at city hall in Granada that included a photo op with a real life Magi.

We’ve also seen Christmas lights everywhere—on trees in town squares, strung up over streets and pedestrian alleys—and a wonderful assortment of Papá Noel figures.

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