An iconic Christmas straw goat that gets torched almost every year in Gävle, Sweden, was erected again at the beginning of December.
Every year the massive Christmas goat (Gävlebocken) in the Slottstorget square in Gävle, central Sweden, attracts media attention with locals dreaming up new ways to protect the 13-metre high creation.
Despite their efforts, including in some years spraying the goat in anti-flammable liquid, the goat usually goes up in flames long before Swedes have opened their Christmas presents. Over its 49-year history, it has been attacked and destroyed 33 times.
In 2014 it survived, but the fate of the goat is now so big that Swedish and British bookmakers now offer odds on the goat surviving the season of Advent.