The biggest Christmas Goat in the worldThe strange history of the Gävle Goat began in 1966. A man named Stig Gavlén came up with the idea of making a giant version of the traditional Swedish Christmas goat of straw. The aim was to attract customers to the the shops and restaurants in the southern part of the town centre.
On 2 December the 13-metre (42,6 feet) tall, 7-metre long, 3 tonne goat stood on the square. At the stroke of midnight on New Year's Eve, the goat went up in smoke. The perpetrator was found and charged with vandalism. The Gävle Goat has been burned down 25 times since then.
http://www.visitgavle.se/en
I wonder how long he will live this year.
Traditions die hard, after 11 years in Sweden it has become a bit of an obsession.