Vandals have set light to a giant straw goat in Sweden - an event that has happened so frequently it has almost become a Christmas tradition.

It's the 22nd time the goat has gone up in smoke since merchants in Gavle, 150km north of Stockholm, began erecting it to mark the holiday season.

Police spokeswoman Margareta Olander said officers received a call just after 9pm to report that the goat was ablaze.

"In just a couple of minutes only a sooty wooden skeleton remained," she said.

There were no immediate suspects, but Olander said that one of two men seen running from the scene was wearing a Father Christmas mask.