In Catalonia children strike a log called 'el tió' whilst singing a song.

They then look underneath the log where they find sweets, nougats and some presents.

"We are 11 years old and we are in the 6th level class. We also celebrate Christmas.

Like in the UK, we decorate Christmas trees, we send Christmas cards, we also decorate cities and towns with Christmas lights.

But in Catalonia we’ve got something different. We take a trunk named: “el tió” and we put it under the Christmas tree. We draw eyes, a nose and a mouth. Children cover it with a blanket and feed it a few days before Christmas day.

The night of the 24 December, after having dinner, children hit it with a stick and sing a song. They look at under the trunk and some sweets, nougats and presents appear. We say: "fer cagar el tió".

Click here to see an animation and to hear the song

Nativity plays are very widespread, and are called pessebres (crib-performance) or pastorets (shepherd-boy plays) and acted out by the local townspeople.

Photographs are copyright of CEIP Sant Cristòfol Primary School

More than 6 million people live in Catalonia, a self-governing region in north eastern Spain.

Catalonia has more than a thousand years of history with a different culture and a different language to Spain.

"We think and we feel different. Catalan is our language and it is the official language in the schools." Sant Cristòfol Primary School

The capital city of Catalonia is Barcelona.

Catalonia was an independant country until 11 September 1714.

"We've got some traditions that are the same as the rest of Spain, like the three kings that bring presents to our children the night of the 5th January.

Like in England, the Twelfth night cake, we have "el tortell de reis" (6th January) with a bean and a king inside."

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