Catalan Christmas Tradition Question

This week I was sent a link to a US news report from 2002 explaining about “caganers”, a Catalan tradition going back to the eighteenth century. The article claimed these were figures sculpted in the process of going to the toilet (sorry if that’s unsavoury) and placed in nativity scenes for children and others to then try and find, as a mixture of game and fertility symbol. A search on the web revealed that this appears to be true. Now I’ve not posted this to try and criticise or demean the practice as I find local European traditions fascinating (I would love to spend a Halloween in Sweden), but I’m putting it up to ask the readers if they’ve encountered caganers in real life, and if so what they mean to you personally (as there seems to be many different reasons for them). Feel free to email me or use the comment function.