Some people want to cure cancer or travel the world or become president...all I've wanted to do for the past three years is be a part of SantaCon in NYC. So here we are switching trains at City Hall on our way to the East Village for SantaCon. We stumbled across SantaCon in 2010 and it looked like so much fun as thousands of Santa's invaded Greenwich Village. Since then SantaCon has gotten a lot of bad press due to the actions of a few Bad Santa's. I was a little worried about the reactions we might get dressed as Santa, but as soon as we left our hotel room everyone was laughing and saying hello to us. The doorman said, "Have a nice day Mr. & Mrs. Claus". The best reaction was a guy inside the corner store who saw us then lifted his hand to his mouth like he was drinking a beer...yes there will be drinking as part of SantaCon.
Shit, I fill this suit just like the real Santa.
Santa had to change SantaCon this year due to the 30,000 Santa's that showed up last year. So this year there will not be a set route that everyone follows. It seems like it will take place in the East Village at about 50 different bars instead of massive crowds travelling en masse throughout the city. So here we are outside Webster Hall after having breakfast at Ray's Pizzeria on St. Marks Place.
What a coincidence, a zookeeper Santa finds a Polar Bear Santa in Webster Hall. We decided to head down to Tompkins Square Park in Alphabet City which is an outdoor meeting location for SantaCon.
There was a strong police presence throughout the East Village.
A Santa Selfie
It was snowing which seemed appropriate to me. Since it was below zero back home in Chicago for the past two days, 28 degrees felt good to me...
...and most people seemed to be enjoying the SantaCon crowd...
...and the various holiday themed costumes.
This guy was dressed as Yukon Cornelius and The Bumble.
This lady had a professional photographer taking pictures of her in the park...
...when the photographer asked for a Santa to pick up the bride, there were several takers.
Twister on a snow covered plastic sheet has to be much tougher than on a living room floor.
All good Santa's donated to local charities this year.
A New Orleans Style Marching Brass Band is welcomed everywhere.
We met our friend Fran and her friend Matt in Tompkins Square Park. After taking pictures, we decided to head back to Webster Hall.
This guy was dressed as a chimney with a stocking full of his daughter hanging from it.
Earlier these cops wouldn't pose with Santa's, now there was a line of Santa's waiting for a picture.
Chrissy happy to be somewhere warm...Webster Hall.
Onstage was a Christmas Cabaret that was a hilarious spin on American Idol.
This guy was dressed as "Sperm of God". I forgot what he sang...
...but everyone had these backup singers.
The judges were Shakespeare, a hot girl and Scrooge. This will shock you, I loved Scrooge. He was very mean and funny throughout the show.
This Santa was a crowd favorite who had the whole place singing Meatloaf's "I'd Do Anything For Love (But I Won't Do That).
Dominatrix Santa with Bondage Santa on the chimney at the back of the stage.
Spidey Santa sang a rap song and wasn't bad for a white kid.
Hey I'm in NYC, of course I found a slice of pizza at SantaCon.
This shy tourist Santa sang a Barbara Streisand song and got booed...
...then Death came on stage did obscene things to her with his sickle.
Then Jesus appeared in the chimney on his cross...
...the next thing you know, he is fighting death and then his robe opens up and he is dangling his jolly green balls on some hottie's face. This shit kept getting funnier with each passing beer.
Scrooge singing a duet with the resurrected and made over shy tourist Santa.
A mime Santa
Burlesque Santa put on quite a show stopping performance.
...that ended at Santa's North Pole.
While we were in Webster Hall, there were Santa parties all over the East Village.
We decided to head over to Brooklyn for a dance party in Cadman Plaza Park.
The DJ had Santa's dancing when we arrived.
A lonely Santa
Here's a Santa that can pee in the park and not get arrested.
Fran & Christy
Mary & Joseph
Matt & Fran walked back to her place in Brooklyn...
...other Santa's headed to either Manhattan's East Village or Bed-Stuy to the Toy Factory for Santa's big after party in a warehouse.
Chrissy & I decide to walk down to Juliana's Pizza on Old Fulton Street. We passed a fire house that had the trucks outside because of the party happening inside.
On our way down to the waterfront, we passed a group of kids sledding on a hill. Chrissy handed out candy canes and the young boys were very polite and thanked her. My SantaCon experience was going just how I imagined it.
When we walked into Juliana's, we were greeted again as Mr. & Mrs. Claus. I got a wide-eyed look from a little girl as we walked by so I wished her a Merry Christmas. There was a table full of young female Santa's who sang " We Wish You Merry Christmas" to everyone as they walked out. I thought that was pretty cool. Once we began to warm up and knock back a whole pizza, we decided to forgo the Toy Factory party. We decided to head back to the hotel, relax then head to the Brooklyn Night Bazaar for music, food and some Christmas Shopping. Our waitress had done SantaCon last year and was hoping to go after work, so we gave her our passes to the Toy Factory. A fireman's young daughters watched Chrissy & I put our Santa suits back on, so when we left we walked by their table and handed out candy canes.
Here's Chrissy as we leave the subway after our day at SantaCon.
It was a good time. Maybe next year we will visit more places but then again, there were lines to get into most bars so maybe staying in one place is the way to go. Either way it will be fun...
... until next year?
