Spain: Feliz Chocodad!

In Sevilla they have some funny ways of expressing Christmas joy. At the most famous and oldest pastelería (pastry shoppe) in the city we saw this. A nativity scene made entirely of chocolate:



Except for, wait... the hay in the manger is made of...



Shredded cheese. Hey, whaddap, Baby Cheesus!

And I posted previously about the Andalucían love of everything hammy. Well, here in the same pastelería is a jamón decorated with frosting, kind of like a kosher-bashin', halal-hatin' cake:



Do you think your Jewish and Muslim friends will come to your fiesta if this is the invitation?



However, you know, I read somewhere that the reason that ham eventually became so obsessively and popularly eaten in public in southern Spain is because the Conversos (undercover Jews and Muslims) had to convert or fake being Catholic so as to not get themselves killed during the Inquisition. So they basically made an art out of publically and ritually eating forbidden foods in order to save their own hides.

I smell bacon. Does this mean I'm about to have a seizure?