Caganer is a retail-store chain that sells handmade figurines in a variety of fun themes. I visited this particular store in the Gothic Quarter of Barcelona.
My tour guide and the salesperson told us that in Spain during Christmas time, the children do not have Santa Claus (at least in Pre-Christian times) and instead have the "pooping uncle"!
To make sure that they were not playing a prank on us tourists, I Googled the story to confirm its accuracy. Basically, the pooping uncle is a decorated log that children "feed" with fruits and sweets and then hit with sticks while asking it to poop presents!
Caganer now makes these figurines about celebrities such as politicians (the most popular to buy are apparently Trump, Putin, and Kim Jong Un), musicians, actors, comics, and much more.
My husband and I bought one stuffed original pooping uncle as a souvenir. The price was OK. The employee promptly and politely rang up our purchase. read more