Bah humbug, it’s that time of year again, well it seems to have been for ages, even here in Tenerife, the street decorations went up in October, so much for mañana. Yes the shops here are brimming with awful decorations and the cheap Todo shops have those horrible singing Santa’s outside.

 One Spanish tradition that always makes me laugh like a drain is El Caganer, the shitter on the nativity scene. This is a Catalan tradition which has some genuine meaning to do with regeneration of the soil but is also good fun. It started with a shepherd on the scene around the stable, squatting down to make a deposit, but now there are loads of Celebrity Caganers you can buy including royalty and politicians.

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Thierry Henry, now plying his trade for Barcelona, is the latest addition and costs 14 euros from www.caganer.com all you have to do is log on, as they say.  Christmas hasn’t really arrived though for me until the 3 Kings start to appear on the Dorada beer bottle labels. Aah isn’t tradition wonderful.