Saturday's Santacon Faces White Weather in NYC
The city prepares for a snow storm and the annual invasion of intoxicated Saint Nicks.
Image: Stephanie Keith/Getty Images
Here comes Santa Claus, and he’s drunk as a skunk and bringing the North Pole with him.
Love it or hate it (with a burning passion), Santacon—New York City’s always-cheerful and often-boorish annual celebration of Jolly Old Saint Nicholas—is taking place on Saturday, and it’s set to coincide with the region’s first snowfall of the year.
As thousands don white beards and other Christmas-themed costumes for an epic Manhattan bar crawl, white flakes are predicted to be falling from the sky. Sleigh bells in the two to four inches of snow are likely to be heard as the fluffy white powder inevitably turns into a dark, slushy mess. (New Yorkers will also undoubtedly hear other things, like air horns, raunchy Christmas carols and fist fights).
The first Santacon was held in 1994 in San Francisco. It has since spread around the country and around the world, with New York City hosting the largest in existence. Describing itself as a “charitable, non-commercial, non-political, non-sensical Santa Claus convention,” the event is notorious for the wreckage it leaves in its path; drunk Santas tend to wrack up citations for things like open containers, public drunkenness and public urination.
To prevent these issues, the organization urges participants to self-police using the “Five F’s of Santacon” as a guide (“Don’t [expletive] with Kids. Don’t [expletive] with Cops. Don’t [expletive] with Bar Staff. Don’t [expletive] with NYC. Don’t [expletive] with Santa’s Charity Mission.”). The NYPD will also be out in full force to keep order.
Santacon became a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization in 2012, and this year will donate its ticket sales to Boys Town New York, Urban Pathways, Safe Horizon, Dance Parade New York, and Materials for the Arts.
Will the snow, snow, snow mess with this year’s ho, ho, ho? Unlikely. Santa Claus(es) are coming to town and you better watch out.
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