What the ho, ho, ho??

1000’s of drunken Santa’s stumbled through the streets yesterday, spreading cheer and merriment to any and all they encountered.  This year, the Red Menace split into 3 groups which collectively roamed The Wharf (Klassic Kringle), The Haight (Ho’s on H8), and The Dirty 30/Castro (Mastrobation).

What is Santa Con? Well, it’s short for Santa Convention, where the only requirements are a red suit and desire to get really, really drunk.  It helps if you are able to stand upright while inebriated for 10-14 hours.  Traditionally, the event takes place on the 3rd Saturday of each December.

This year marked the 15th year anniversary of the mass-metro infestation of Santa clones.

In 1994, the Cacophony Society staged the 1st SantaCon in San Francisco.  The Cacophonists decided to celebrate the Yule time season in a strictly non-commercial manner by mixing guerrilla street theater, pranksterism, and public intoxication.

SantaCon has since evolved, spawning many splinter cells and interpretations of the event in cities all around the world.

This year, SantaCon went 2.0 with a Twitter feed updating participants of the rapidly changing locations, thus allowing fresh and less inebriated Santa’s to join the migrating herd.

Our friends at Laughing Squid have posted an excellent round up of the collective “Santarchy” here.

NSFW Flickr set here.