Drunken Santas, everywhere? Sure! It’s also hot toddys, holiday cheer and grownups dressed as elves, reindeer, Christmas trees and gingerbread houses. Just like Comic-Con has become far more than just a comic book convention, Santa Con is having a cultural moment.

Inspired by pub crawls everywhere, Santa Con is loosely connected to a 1974 Danish agitprop action by the Solvognen theater group, where they went en masse into department stores and gave away goods and products while dressed as Santas. It reappeared in San Francisco in 1994, celebrating all things Santa as long as it involved a cocktail. Now it’s in hundreds of cities around the world – either healthily or unhealthily, depending on your point of view.

Santa Con goers convene flashmob style, over text, tweets or just by following the jolly flow of redshirted and suited Santas.

Santa Con goers convene flashmob style, over text, tweets or just by following the jolly flow of redshirted and suited Santas and Santa corollaries. This can either mean great times, or streets filled with bodily fluids and great times.

But we’re fans of the hardfast rules set out by the New York Santa Contingent – Don’t F*ck with Kids, Don’t F*ck with Cops, Don’t F*ck with Bar Staff, and Don’t F*ck with NYC. And so it seems any reasonably intelligent, sensitive gathering of costumed folks should be able to comfortably drink copious amounts of alcohol while running around major urban centers and have it all work out perfectly well.

Don’t you think? 

Check out the New York Santa Con photos below and raise one to the joy of mass gatherings!