As it’s a possible destination for 2007, I’m keeping my eye on a couple of Maltese blogs. Wired Temples reported today on group of Maltese students who broke the Guinness world record for the longest Christmas Log. It’s 88.44 metres long:
The log took 165 kg of digestive biscuits to make, coupled up with a further 137.5 kg of dates, 55 kg of candied peel, 275 tins of milk, more than 19 bottles of brandy as well as 550 teaspoons of vanilla. The log, prepared by 30 ITS students over the period of one month, weighed 465kg by the time it was completed.
I’m not exactly sure what a Christmas log is. Is that what I know as a Christmas fruit cake? It’s not a Yule log, which gets burned in a fireplace (which, frankly, is where a number of those fruit cakes belong) as a tradition in northern Europe.
DarrenBarefoot.com 
This is a Christmas log.
MS
The URL in the previous comment gives the name in French: Buche de Noel, which translates to Yule log. Wikipedia takes over from there:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B%C3%BBche_de_No%C3%ABl
So it’s basically sponge cake rolled with chocolate cream frosting. I remember the coffee/mocha one the best from my time in France. Now it’s just an archetype, and they make all sorts and flavors, including frozen using ice cream.
About.com provides some recipes and a bit more history of the yule log, but disappointingly not of the yule log cake:
http://frenchfood.about.com/cs/dessertcoffee/a/buchedenoel.htm