In Sweden, Santa brings us presents! We call him Jultomten - "Jul" being the Swedish word for "Christmas" (though the word "Jul" originally has no connectiont to Christianity) instead of Sankt Nicholas/Santa, because we've sort of mixed him up with our traditional folkloric tomtar:
A tomte has nothing to do with Christmas - they're gnomes who live in people's homes and farms and look after the house and the animals.
The julbock (or "yule goat") is definitely a thing, though! It's a really old tradition, going back to before Christianity came to Sweden - it's thought that julbocken is actually supposed to be one of the goats belonging to Thor, the Norse god of thunder! Also, we used to slaughter animals for the winter around Christmas, so it might be a reference to that. It used to be tradition that people dressed up as goats and went around to other people's houses and sang a bunch of songs - until they were given food and drink. I think eventually, the person dressed as julbocken began to give out presents, but that tradition has died down.
However, it's Swedish tradition that someone dressed as Santa knocks on the door during Christmas Eve (usually, it's somebody's dad who has excused themselves to go buy the newspaper, and then comes back dressed as santa XD) and hands out presents to kids in person - and I think this might have something to do with the old tradition of dressing up as julbocken and handing out presents.
These days, julbocken is mostly used as a decoration - placed under the Christmas tree, or with tiny little ornament-versions hung in the tree, and there are cookie-cutters shaped as julbocken to use to make gingerbread cookies, etc.
The most famous example of the julbock is of course, Gävlebocken! It's the biggest julbock in the whole world, and is built in the town square of Gävle every year at the beginning of December, and then taken down after New Year's Eve.
That is - if it survives. XD You see, it has a habit of burning down. It was first built in 1966, and it's been built nearly every year since, and I think it's burned down more often than it's survived. People have made a game of trying to set it on fire, and there are people taking bets every year on how long it will survive.
It's not supposed to burn down - people who set it on fire are committing a crime - but honestly, I'm disappointed every year it doesn't burn down. It's the middle of a dark winter - let's light it up!
