The Gävle Goat is a giant straw Christmas goat built annually in Gävle, Sweden, and often watched through the New Year period. The monument is erected in the city’s Castle Square during Advent and has become an internationally known seasonal spectacle.
The first goat was built in 1966 by local advertising consultant Stig Gavlén and was about 13 meters tall. Its straw construction echoes the Scandinavian yule-goat tradition, a pre-Christian and later Christmas symbol associated with gift-giving and winter festivities.
The goat has repeatedly been vandalized or set on fire, despite fencing, cameras and security measures. Survival from construction through New Year is therefore treated as a notable outcome, and annual news reports track its condition.
It is not the same object as Sweden’s Dala horse, another famous regional symbol made from wood rather than straw.