According to an old Icelandic tradition, everyone has to get one new piece of clothing for Christmas. Anyone who did not was in danger of being eaten by the Christmas Cat, a large vicious black feline who belonged to a family who were descended from trolls. (Children who did not behave were eaten by the ogress troll-mother herself.)

One of the more unusual bearers of Christmas presents, with a unique delivery method, is the Caga tió (pooping uncle or, in this case, pooping tree trunk). Found in the Catalonia region, it consists of a hollow log. Beginning at the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, the family “feeds” the tio and covers him with a warm blanket each night. Then, at Christmas, the family gathers together, sings songs, puts the tio partly into the fire and beats it with sticks, until it excretes presents of candy, nuts or figs. When the tio is finished pooping it signals this by dropping salted herring, a head of garlic, an onion, or by “urinating”, whereupon the entire log is burned.

Wassailing sounds like such an innocuous, wholesome tradition, knocking on doors, singing a few songs, and perhaps being offered a warm drink or cookies. The original wassailers, however, were more aggressive, and would invade a home, demanding food, drink or money from the homeowners, and refusing to leave until they received their “recompense”. If forcibly ejected they would curse, threaten and sometimes vandalize the property of their “hosts”.

The Mari Lwyd is a horse’s skull, decorated with bells and ribbons, which is set on a stick and carried by an operator hidden under a white sheet. The eye sockets are often filled with green glass and the jaw may be spring-loaded so that the Mari can “snap” at passers-by. She is to be found in Southeast Wales around the Christmas season, particularly at New Year’s. The Mari and her male companions attempt to enter households or pubs via a contest where they would trade insults with the householders via song. If the Mari and her male friends won, they would enter and obtain food and drink