Most kids receive presents for Christmas, but do they all get these presents in the same way? Does Santa Claus go everywhere? In Spain we have two ways of receiving presents, although some families have Santa Claus too.

During the first week of December,  all of the houses of Catalonia have a log called, “Tió de Nadal”. This is a log with eyes, a mouth and two legs in the front. During all of December you have to feed that log with any type of food, usually fruit or cookies. You feed the log because the night of the 24 or the 25, usually before having the family dinner or lunch, people hit the log with a stick while they sing a specific song. After that they look under the log and there are presents that the log produced. You do this until the log produces a sock or a WC paper, that means the log doesn’t have more presents to produce, and you have to wait for the next year to have more presents.

The families that celebrate Santa Claus celebrate it around the same days that “El Tió de Nadal” happens. It happens the same in Catalonia as it does in other countries with the presents under the tree. In some houses, Santa Claus arrives at their house with all the presents in a sack and delivers them to the children. Santa Claus is a new arrival in Spain, because people began copying it from the United States.

The last tradition is “Els Reis d’Orient”, which is a Christian tradition. There are three magic kings that deliver the presents at sunrise on January 6 to the houses while riding their camels. People leave cookies and milk in their living rooms for the camels and the kings. When people wake up, they find the presents on their living rooms. On 5 of December the three magic kings are in a trade, in every town of Spain at the same time. All the kids give their letter with a list of the presents they want to receive to them.