The piñata is a game in which a succession of blindfolded, stick-wielding children try to break a bright candy-and-toy-filled container , suspended on a rope from a tree branch . It has been used for hundreds of years to celebrate special occasions such as birthdays and Christmas. Spanish colonizers are thought to have brought the piñata to Mexico. Legend has it that Marco Polo introduced the piñata to the Italians after discovering it in the Orient. Piñata has come to mean the container itself. Piñatas are made from easily-breakable materials, papier-mâché, or clay; traditionally they were made in the shape of human or animal figures.