The only Christmas tradition I care about is Swedens arson goat

If you’ve never heard of the Gävle Goat before, there are just two critical pieces of information you need to know.

First: the Gävle Goat is a giant straw statue of a goat erected every Christmas in the Swedish town of Gävle. It’s essentially a massive Yule Goat, a traditional symbol of the Yuletide season in areas of Scandinavia and Northern Europe, and was first installed in the town in 1966. The most recent incarnation stands 42 feet high and weighs 3.6 tonnes.

Second: every year, someone tries to set the goat on fire. And most years, they succeed — including this one.

As the BBC reported this morning: “A giant straw goat that has become an annual highlight in the Swedish city of Gavle has been burned by an arsonist. A man in his 40s...

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