Did you ever think a scene from a Where’s Waldo book could ever come to life?
Well my friends, it came to life for me this Saturday at Santacon, a gathering of people dressed in everything “Santa Claus” and/or holiday related i.e. the sexy Mrs. Claus’, the blue-suit Santa’s for Hanukkah, Buddy the Elves, toy soldiers, reindeer, snowmen, christmas trees, presents, abominable snowmen, and more.
For the most part though, no matter the costume, people are wearing primarily red and white, meaning that finding any one or thing is nearly impossible during SantaCon, similar to the task of trying to find Waldo in an overpopulated photograph.
This year, “the annual SantaCon [happened] in 37 countries across 275 locations [on Saturday], from New York City and San Francisco to London, Hong Kong, Syndey and Hong Kong (other U.S. cities include Miami, Austin and Milwaukee.)” – Mashable
Aside from the bashing negative reviews of frat-tastic day-drinking and complete shitshow qualities that Santacon receives, I can’t help but feel a sense of community and togetherness, especially since this year (like last year,) kicked off with a food drive, “in 2011, Santa raised $10,000 for Toys for Tots and donated over 6,000 lbs of food to Manhattan and Brooklyn food banks.” – via Facebook event wall.
Although my friend sat in a pile of vomit by accident, four of us crammed into a handicap bathroom for expediting purposes, and the bars in NYC were impenetrable– filled to the brim, there’s something to be said about such a mass of people (~30K RSVP’d on FB,) doing something together that’s fairly harmless AND fun!
To quote Sandi Bachom’s piece re SantaCon on HuffPo,
“It is a leap of faith into joy, hard to explain unless you’ve done it…but you never forget your first SantaCon,” and that I won’t Sandi!
Did you join in the festivities? How was your SantaCon? Was it your first too? Share in the comments below!
…and for your viewing pleasure, some of my instagram uploads from my first SantaCon:
Slippers & Vino 
You seem like a really cool generous person, and I’m sure you had a great time. But for somebody NOT taking part in Santacon, trying to get from Hoboken to NYC on Saturday was hell. Stuck in a bus overloaded with Santas pissed off, or already halfway drunk, that the bus was moving so slowly. Unable to get a seat because there were so many people on the bus. I missed the event I was planning to go to–could be I would have anyway, but nobody amongst the Santas thought to say, “Hey, is there anybody going to work, or have to get someplace on time?” waiting on the bus line, and stepped back. There are no subways running in Hoboken, Suazmo, even now, because of Sandy. Buses are it.
And then nothing says Christmas like going into the Port Authority bathroom to see four women, dressed as elves, already red-faced, chugging Jameson, at 3 in the afternoon. It was the day after Newtown. If you have some suggestions to make the next one better, please contribute. I didn’t see anybody raising money or donating to anything.
Hey Martha, thanks for reading and commenting!
I completely agree with you – I’m sure it was hell for you, and I’m sure everyone could do with less of the mess on the streets/public transportation. Therefore, on behalf of SantaCon, SORRY for the inconvenience!
However, I’m not sure there’s much that can change about the day-long event due of the overall nature of the event. That being said, I think this is why SantaCon as an “organization” tries to raise money and donate. To your last point, as mentioned in my post and on their site, anyone that RSVP’d and began the crawl with the bigger mass of people donated cans of food, and official “Santa” bars also donated portions of proceeds as well,
“sixty venues who participated in NYC Santacon [alone] donated a portion of the day’s proceeds to the Marine Toys for Tots Foundation: as of right now, they’ve reported $20,000, with a projected total of $45,000. All Santacon participants were asked to bring two cans of food to support local food banks. Santas donated 6,850 lbs of canned food at the event’s starting point, which City Harvest is distributing. Twenty-two venues also collected canned food from Santas, the total weight of which will be available soon.”
Thanks again for reading, and enjoy your holidays!