Surviving SantaCon

Yesterday, it was SantaCon in NYC.
dievca had PT in Times Square, so she ended up in the thick of it during the late afternoon.  It hadn’t gotten super bad at that point.

What is SantaCon?

SantaCon is celebrated as an annual pub crawl where participants—all dressed up like Santa Claus—spend the day drinking at different participating bars.

As the SantaCon website says, “What is it? A SantaCon is a convention of santas – groups of men & women dressed like Santa. Why do it? Because it’s fun. That is all. It’s one of the few chances left for adults to be silly without any kind of agenda.”

When was the first SantaCon?

While an event of Santa-garbed people began in 1974 as an anti-consumerism demonstration, it wasn’t until 1994 that the first official SantaCon took place, which happened in San Francisco.

This is an interesting point that the SantaCon started as anti-consumerism – dievca was locking her bike to buy sushi for dinner, she asked a bouncer to keep an eye on it.  The bar had a consistent influx of “Santa’s but the bike was in his direct view.  After dievca picked up her sushi, she asked the bouncer how the afternoon was going and he pointed to the bar windows – the bar was packed. dievca then asked if SantaCon was a headache and the bouncer said that its a blessing – a boost in income for the year.

As dievca unlocked her bike, a group of 8 Ladies in their early 40’s wandered into the bar with their sparkly teal blue Santa Hats and matching t-shirts.  They had called in advanced to make reservations.  Does consuming drinks count as consumerism?

OK, Fair. SantaCon is annoying as heck when you get stuck in the middle of it while sober, but the activity does bring salvation to the Pubs of NYC.  It’s like putting up with the Tourists – New Yorkers just do it for the good of the City.