IKEA’s Christmas Goat, often times the target of arson and self-immolation, now faces a new threat that has IKEA management troubled.
A Facebook event which translates as “Set the goat on fire, they can’t stop all of us” is scheduled for December 1. Over 4,000 Icelanders have marked themselves as interested or going to the event, which is set to take place at IKEA in Garðabær, where the Christmas Goat is erected.
Although the event is at least mostly comedic, and a nod to last September’s Storm Area 51, They Can’t Stop All Of Us non-event, Vísir reports that IKEA is taking the matter seriously.
Guðný Camilla Aradóttir, the PR manager for IKEA in Iceland, told reporters that the Christmas Goat is under heavy surveillance around the clock. As one of the stated reasons for the goat-burning event is that Christmas keeps getting aggressively marketed earlier and earlier each year, Guðný addressed this point specifically.
“This is something we hear every year,” she said. “This hasn’t changed in many years. It’s just how some people are.” She added that she believes critics of the early Christmas season are but a vocal minority, pointing out that some of their Christmas items have already sold out.
On the subject of the possible deliberate burning of the goat, Guðný was adamant.
“I want to appeal to the common sense of the arsonists, because this is just dangerous, to themselves and to others,” she said. “Vandalism is really boring. It is not our plan that people see [the goat] as some kind of enticement or challenge.”
For would-be challengers to the goat, it should be noted that The Christmas Goat is indeed under heavy security following several instances of deliberate arson. That said, high winds have also torn the goat down on at least two occasions, and faulty wiring led to it setting itself on fire in 2015.
The curious will just have to wait until December 1 to see if a jubilant mob burns down the Christmas Goat or, like the Area 51 raid, some people simply show up to hang out and have a good time.
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