Santa Claus is coming to town.
On Saturday, thousands of Kris Kringles and merry old St. Nicks packed the streets, sidewalks and bars from Adelaide to Vancouver for the annual Santacon Charity Pub Crawl.
In New York City, where temperatures hovered around freezing, the fermented, cheerful atmosphere began around 10 a.m. and was scheduled to continue into the evening.
Santa, along with people dressed as the Grinch, elves and other Christmas characters, strolled through bars and clubs from midtown Manhattan to the East Village, filling the streets with red-hot Christmas cheer.
“New York City SantaCon is a philanthropic, non-profit, non-political, no-nonsense Santa Claus convention held once a year to spread absurd joy,” the organizers’ website explains.
SantaCon attendees are encouraged to donate $15 for admission to participating venues. Organizers say the money will be donated to charity.
Similar Christmas-themed booze festivals were held Saturday in about 50 cities around the world, including London, Phoenix, Winnipeg and San Francisco. Some held SantaCon on Friday, last weekend, or late last month. We have more planned for the month of December.
The New York City Police Department posted a warning on social media saying that opening containers on the street is prohibited and blocking pedestrian or vehicle traffic could result in a citation. It also encouraged event attendees to have a designated driver.
Commuter railroads in the area banned passengers from drinking alcohol on board.
