A fancy straw goat: via
The tuohi pukki (straw Yule goat) is a traditional Nordic decoration, usually at home under the christmas tree guarding the presents, and actually one of several straw based decorations (more on that tomorrow). Strangely pukki (goat) is also the name for Santa here (joulupukki) - according to wikipedia "... the Yule Goat was originally said to be an ugly creature that frightened children, and demanded gifts at Christmas..."
I suppose at some point the St. Nicholas/Santa Claus/Father Christmas legend got overlaid on that, resulting in our modern gift-giving version of Joulupukki... but more on him at a later date.
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