[FIPS WAS THERE...] NYC Santacon 2013

Santacon is exactly like Halloween in the city, only with the added appeal of day drinking.

We walked out of the 3rd Ave L station, dressed in our Santa and Mrs. Claus costumes. The Santas walking under the falling snow on 14th Street  outnumbered the average pedestrians. It was quite the site: the North Pole as imagined by 20-somethings, come to life.

The bars were like Santa’s workshop, only the beers weren’t gifts. No matter, my wife and I hunkered down by the window at the first bar full of Santas we saw and stocked up on drinks; I knew getting a bartender’s attention again later would take forever in this sea of Santas, so I doubled fisted. But slowly and one at a time, because my metabolism isn’t what it used to be.

In half an hour, the bar went from crowded to bursting at the doors. And literally every patron in that overcrowded bar was wearing a Santa or Santa-inspired outfit. To be clear, I do mean “literally,” in the exact sense of the word and not its new, devoid of all purpose, second definition.

The whole time, my phone was blowing up with text alerts from the official NYCSantacon. The evening before, I went online and got geared up to do Santacon the official way. I made my donation. That entitled me to early information about locations, a badge for entrance to the final venue, and some other stuff essential for the complete Santacon experience. I downloaded the NYCSantacon app. I signed up for the aforementioned text alerts. Around 9:30pm an email came through with the details: Santacon would start at Tompkins Square Park and the badges would be at Webster Hall. Meeting time was 10am, sharp.

This was all very overwhelming. Santaconning was hard!

Ultimately, I didn’t pick up my badge. I Santaconned the way a lot of other people do: I went to the East Village, dressed like Santa Claus, and hit up Santacon-friendly bars. They were easy to spot by the line of Santas getting snowed on while they waited to get in. Establishments that did not welcome roving hordes of alcohol-seeking Santas posted “Santacon Free Zone” signs.

While the official NYCSantacon was moving from the East Village to Camden Plaza in Brooklyn, we wandered the streets with random packs of Santas. There were some creative takes on the concept, like Captain AmeriClaus and Santa Elvis. There were also plenty of non-Santa, season-appropriate costumes, like Ralphie’s pink bunny pajamas from A Christmas Story, a human-sized dreidel and gingerbread men. The fact it was snowing and the vast majority of people out and about in the miserable cold were Santaconners made it extra surreal.

We ended up at another bar, obviously. Even if we wanted to keep walking, I had not drunk enough yet to keep me warm. We squeezed into a spot at the end of a long bar that was 3 rows deep with Santas waiting to order. Santacon had brought a Saturday night party to the bar in the middle of the day. Everyone sang along to Blurred Lines (yes, me too) and complimented each other’s costumes (because that’s what Santa would do). After another round, though, we did like we do on most real Saturday nights and called it an early night.

Only it was still the day, so we got home, ordered Chinese food and watched TV in our Santa hats. A couple of hours bar hopping, dressed like Santa Claus, before the crowds got sloppy, was just enough Santacon for me.

NYC Santacon