Maybe the One Good Thing About SantaCon

Every year since 1997, thousands of men and women dressed up as Santa, elves, reindeer and other Christmas-related things descend on the city to do a day-long bar crawl. It’s sort of like St. Patrick’s Day in December. Drunk Santas, they will be everywhere tomorrow.

“Alcohol Soaked Father Christmas-themed flash mob not welcome here,” reads a sign in the Lower East Side, according to the Times. “Take your body fluids and public intoxication elsewhere.” The one good thing, perhaps, is that some of the money from this will go to charity:

“We are all very aware of the backlash,” said the man chosen to speak for the group, who would agree to be identified only as Mr. Santa.

For the first time, organizers agreed to share the route of the bar crawl with the authorities. There will also be “helper elves” to guide Santas who stumble off the path.

Mr. Santa noted that for every bar that does not want Santa to stop by, there are dozens that do. Every establishment on the tour, he said, has pledged to donate a percentage of the day’s profits to Toys for Tots.

Last year, the event raised $45,000.

In any event, I’ll be hiding indoors and letting the Santas deal with the coming snowstorm tomorrow.

Photo: Annie Mole

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