S.F. SantaCon participants don’t mind getting doused
Santa Tom, the head Santa at an event full of them, rose from his throne to lead the crowd in song.
“But do you recall the most famous reindeer of all,” Santa sang in San Francisco’s Union Square, waving his arms to direct the crowd in singing along. “Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer had a very shiny nose, and if you ever saw it, you would even say it glowed.”
People were swaying and singing along when a man in a revealing red dress entered the scene with two giant golden balloons for breasts.
And thus SantaCon, the San Francisco tradition where people dress up as the roly-poly holiday icon and go bar-hopping, had begun Saturday. Persistent chilly rain seemed to keep some Santas home, but dozens of others came out anyway to exercise their holiday spirit and donate to the San Francisco Fire Department’s toy drive, which is part of the event.
Attendees wore all manner of Santa attire, with many carrying umbrellas against the rain, while others just let the rain soak them through as they prepared to trot off for the bar crawl portion of the event.
“Rain or shine, what the hey,” Larry Simonin said.
“I’m in jolly elf mode,” said Emma Luong, 23, who sported large pointed ears and died green hair. Her voice was highpitched and cheerful. “I don’t normally speak like this, I’m just in the mood,” she said, jumping up and down.
Vaughn Proctor, 26, Luong’s friend, tried to keep up with his “Kringle-iest mood,” he said in his Santa costume with a big golden belt buckle.
Nadia Arouni, a recent Cal Poly graduate, is a big Christmas person. She loves the cheer and the gift-giving. But before this year, she’d never tried SantaCon, partly because her age kept her from enjoying the notorious pub crawl.
“I’m 21 now, so I can be here,” Arouni said.
For years, Ryan Elliott, a Napa Valley wine educator, had wanted to attend the event too — to dress up and tour the neighborhood bars — but life got in the way.
On Saturday, he declined to let the rain deter him.
“Fat, drunk and dressed as Santa is the only way to go through life,” Elliott said.