Tió de Nadal
A Catalan Christmas tradition

Tió de Nadal

Meet the Christmas log that children feed, tuck under a blanket and ask to poop out presents.

A smiling Christmas log with a red Catalan cap and a green blanket.

From the hearth
to the holidays

In Catalan, tió means a log for the fire. It comes from the Latin titiōne, with the same meaning. Add de Nadal (“of Christmas”) and you get “Christmas log.” The accent marks the stressed syllable, so tió sounds roughly like “tee-OH.”

The custom grew out of the winter hearth. A big log burning at Christmas gave the household warmth and light. Accounts of the tradition describe the log giving edible treats as well, including nuts, sweets, thin rolled wafers called neules and nougat called torró. Today many families give the log a painted face, little wooden legs and a red Catalan cap called a barretina.

When children sing “Caga, tió!” they’re talking to the log. It means “Poop, log!” The celebration itself is often called fer cagar el tió, “to make the log poop.”

How to celebrate

  1. Bring the Tió home

    In December, give the log a spot in the house and cover its back with a blanket. In Girona, one custom is for the Tió to arrive on December 13, Saint Lucy’s Day.

  2. Feed it at night

    Leave a mandarin, a few orange peels or a cookie by the Tió before bed. A grown-up can clear the food away overnight, leaving a few crumbs or peels for the children to find.

  3. Sing and lift the blanket

    On Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, a grown-up hides sweets or small gifts under the blanket while the children are out of the room. The children come back, sing and tap the log with sticks, then lift the blanket to see what it left. Some families do several rounds.

Sing along

Tió, Tió

This is the version we sing at home. There are lots of different versions across Catalonia, and some are much longer.

Catalan

Tió, Tió,
caga torró,
d’aquell tan bo,
d’avellana i de pinyó.

Si no en tens més,
caga diners.
Si no en tens prou,
caga un ou.

I si no vols cagar,
et fotré un cop de bastó.

English translation

Log, log,
poop out some nougat,
the really good kind,
with hazelnuts and pine nuts.

If you’re out of nougat,
poop out some money.
If you don’t have enough,
poop out an egg.

And if you won’t poop,
I’ll give you a whack with a stick.