Thousands of Santas, elves, Christmas trees and reindeer paraded through New York City on Saturday. Only those who wear a Christmas costume are allowed to take part in the SantaCon. Around 30,000 party-goers meet every year for the parade followed by a pub crawl. Originally launched as an anti-capitalist event, the giant pre-Christmas party has now become a drinking spree that draws a lot of criticism.
SantaCon intended as a criticism of commercialization
The organizers describe the SantaCon on their website as a “charitable, non-political, nonsensical Santa Claus conference” whose aim is to “spread absurd joy”. Today’s version has nothing to do with the original idea of the event. The first SantaCon took place in San Francisco in 1994, inspired by the action of a Danish theater group. Disguised as Santa Clauses, the activists once occupied a department store and took books from the shops to “give them away” to customers.
The San Francisco group took up the idea in a different way. “The idea was to mess up the concept of Christmas,” quoted the German press agency John Law, co-founder of the first SantaCon. The Santa Clauses stormed a ballroom, paraded through department stores and hung a Santa Claus doll from a street lamp. The basic idea was “to make a little mockery of a crappy holiday proven to rest on an unholy alliance of religious hypocrisy and mercantile lust.” The event was supposed to be a demonstration against the commercialization of Christmas.
Vandalism and riots in New York
SantaCon is now celebrated in more than 350 cities and 50 countries around the world, each with different versions and interpretations. The biggest – and also the most notorious – event has been held in New York City since 1998. The event in the metropolis is marked by vandalism and riots every year and therefore has a particularly bad reputation. The move is according to the British “Guardians” has become an event many New Yorkers dread, an “invitation to mass beatings, street vomiting and public fornication”. The “New York Timesdescribed the party as “a day-long bar crawl that begins in high spirits and, for many, inevitably ends in a hazy, alcohol-soaked haze”.
One of the rules proclaimed by the organizers is “Santa don’t drink more than he can handle”.
©John Angelillo/UPI
On the official website the event there is a code of conduct. Including points like “Santa spreads joy, no terror, no vomit and no garbage” or “Santa respects the city: He doesn’t pee on the street and doesn’t start fights”. In practice, however, these rules are often ignored. Every year, local residents complain that revelers leave a trail of destruction, urinating in public and vandalizing property. There were repeated arrests, including for assault and possession of weapons.
Police warned partygoers in advance
According to the organizers, the participants of the SantaCon are “for the most part responsible, creative and community-oriented New Yorkers”. The event has “changed significantly for the better” in recent years, they emphasized when asked by the Guardian. For the past ten years, proceeds from ticket sales ($15 per person) have been donated to various charities around town. According to the SantanCon website have raised more than $90,000 over the past ten years.
In 2020 the event was suspended, in 2021 the parade was full again. The vaccination certificates that were required for this were no longer necessary this year, reports the “New York PostThe police, who have shown increased presence at past events, came forward with a warning earlier this year. “We will be out there and make sure you behave,” officials said on Twitter. Arrests have been made but there were none this year, police said after the event, the British ‘Daily Mail“.
And otherwise there were no major headlines. Thousands of costumed people met on Broadway at ten in the morning, then paraded through the city together and partied until late in the evening. 65 clubs and bars took part. With the ticket, the Christmas fans received free entry to the locations where it was mostly peaceful.
Sources: “Daily Mail“, “New York Post“, “New York Times“, “SantaCon (I)“, “SantaCon (II)“, “The Guardians“