Every day of the year you can find something to do in NYC, but one of the wildest and most fun is SantaCon. Thousands of Santas meet in a designated area of NYC to talk, goof, and hit the town. Many think of it as a bar crawl as the news only shows the drunk kids, but there is also a lighter side.

As they state on their website “Santacon is a non-denominational, non-commercial, non-political and non-sensical Santa Claus convention that occurs once a year for absolutely no reason. It’s your chance to spread holiday cheer in the most magical and absurd way possible.” This year started at Pier 83 on the west side, and after cameras clicked and rolled, Rudolph inflatables were tossed in the air, music was played from boom boxes and Santas met other Santas, the adventure of the day began heading to the streets. Santacon organized a series of events and places where we would all go to eat, drink and be merry, very merry.

Crowds of Santas, elves, penguins, and other related costumes get so large on some streets that NYPD has to do some crowd control, fortunately everyone is civilized and followed their requests to go only on sidewalks. Most of NYPD intervention was to give the occasional ticket for having an open container. Yes Santa does get ticketed!

Most, if not all these designated locations will donate part of their profits to the Marine Toys for Tots Foundation, so the more you spend the more they donate! As per Santacon’s website they had reported over $20,000 with a projection of $45,000, not to mention the 6,850 lbs. of canned food donated at the starting point and gathered by City Harvest.

It’s a day of meeting new people, eating and of course for a good amount of Santas to get drunk by 3PM. The day continues from the bars and dance clubs of the west side into Times Square, and becomes an attraction for all tourists in the area. Click after click from cameras from all over the world are heard, and the most common phrase “can I take a picture with you?”. Even famous photographers such a Bill Cunningham of The New York Times can be found clicking and enjoying this festive sight.

By early afternoon you can see Santas from Times Square to the Lower East Side jumping from bar to bar, restaurant to restaurant and everyone with a huge smile. As the afternoon progresses other Santas start to arrive, and now NYC turns into a Sexy Santa Town. It did not matter that the temperature was in the 40s, you will commonly see the girls wearing very sexy Santa outfits. Ever imagined seeing Mrs. Claus’ cleavage? well here it’s in abundance and you see most guys welcoming the visual gift they are getting. All wearing hats, tight sexy tops, and the shortest miniskirt possible. Oh yes is not only cleavage you see.

The event goes late into the night, if not the morning after. From Manhattan it jumps into Brooklyn and only God knows if they actually find the Northern Star to guide them home. All in all, is a memorable day for all!