The tradition dates back to the 15th Century and it is not known how it started, but in modern years ‘poopers’ have been created in the image of famous people.
If you feel inclined, you can now decorate your Christmas cake or nativity scene with a pooping Prince William, Kate Middleton, Barack Obama, Nicolas Sarkozy, the Dalai Lama, the Pope and a host of other well known figures.
In fact, there are 250 crouching figures to choose from.
Traditionally, the caganer, or pooper, would be hidden somewhere in the scene, but today the defecating dolls are often given centre stage.
A spokesperson for makers, the Caganer.com said: “We’ve always based our creations on the saying ‘The King poops, the Pope poops and everybody who eats, poops’.
“We create a lot of characters because we all do that. It is something we just need to do, therefore we recreate it.”
The pooper tradition is particularly strong in Catalonia and is thought to have originated in the Baroque period when art strove to imitate the realisms of life.
If you want a pooper in your nativity scene, get one here: caganer.com
