Caga Tió A Catalan Christmas Tradition

YOU MAY HAVE HEARD OF CAGA TIÓ (ALSO KNOWN AS TIÓ DE NADAL), THE POOPING CHRISTMAS LOG, PART OF CHRISTMAS IN CATALUÑA.... after being inspired by a number of wonderful teacher colleagues, I decided to make my own for my classroom. Years ago I used to talk about this tradition, but have gotten away from it for a long time, so am excited to bring him back-and this time as a real log! Below is the process of how I made mine, along with a bunch of resources so you can include him in your classes, too!

Tió de Nadal or Caga Tió A Cataluña Christmas Tradition

SO, THE LOG... we were lucky enough to have an awesome True Value right by our house which we patronize all the time, and, like at so many small town businesses, we are friendly with the owners, so we stopped by and got a birch log off their pile out back for free- thank you Vic! Any log will do, I am sure-ours is about a foot long, and maybe 8 inches in diameter. I used a smaller branch to saw two legs on a diagonal (yes, I did the sawing!), which my husband then screwed into the bigger log. I cut a wine cork in half and painted it red, then glued it to the face along with drawing on eyes, a smile, and rosy cheeks. The hat I made out of felt, using glue to affix the black portion to the red- super simple DIY!

FOR SOME BACKGROUND INFO:

OF COURSE, YOU MUST FEED HIM...I love that he is often fed healthy foods, like mandarin oranges, nuts, and other snacks. Here is a very well done short video of him "eating" (no need to show the very end which is a PSA)...click here.

And a quirkier version:

THIS VIDEO IS QUITE CUTE AND COULD SERVE TO SHOW HOW TO HIT TIÓ WITH STICKS... and then delivers presents via his posterior! (I like how gently they hit him...I think we seem to get the idea that you whale away at him when described as "beating the sh** out of him" rather than this much sweeter demonstration-after all, it is a kid's tradition, right? Click here.

AND HERE'S ANOTHER:

TO HELP YOU MAKE AN INTRODUCTION OF TIÓ DE NADAL IN THE TARGET LANGUAGE, you can download our set of visuals FREE in our shop-click here.

I am in LOVE with this super short video, featuring Tió de Nadal, the Three Kings, and Santa Claus. Perfect for a quick brain break or to start/end class just for fun. Click here!