SantaCon 2024 outside Solas on 9th Street. Photo by Stacie Joy.
In case you were blissfully enjoying the holiday season, SantaCon 2025 takes place on Saturday.
The annual pub crawl — an alleged charitable event, per published reports — kicks off this year at 410 a.m.at 140th and Broadway. From here, the entire tri-state area is effectively under a red alert.
A $17 "donation" gets you a Santa Badge and access to participating bars, mostly in Midtown West and East. And, as always, the East Village remains a main attraction.
Most of the participating local venues remain the same...
• Amsterdam Billiards & Bar, 110 E. 11th St. at Fourth Avenue
• 10 Degrees Bar, 121 St. Mark's Place between Avenue A and First Avenue
• The Laurels, 231 Second Ave. at 14th St.
• Coyote Ugly, 233 E. 14th St., between Second Avenue and Third Avenue
• Solas, 232 E. Ninth St. between Second Avenue and Third Avenue (serving as a "Huge Venue")
• Bull McCabe's, 29 St. Mark's Place between Second Avenue and Third Avenue
• Doc Holliday's, 141 Avenue A at Ninth Street
• Horseshoe Bar/7B, 108 Avenue B at Seventh Street
New this year:
• Sly Fox, 140 Second Ave. between Ninth Street and 10th Street.
As we've seen in previous Cons, bars not on the official list also participate, including Downtown Social on Second Avenue at Ninth Street and Eastpoint on Avenue B between Second Street and Third Street.
Per EVG's Stacie Joy last year: "Though not incident-free, the 2024 edition of SantaCon showed signs of being more manageable than in previous years. For some, that may be a holiday miracle in itself."
Can we make it two miracles in a row?
23 comments:
There will be noise, there will be drunk people. But worse of all is avoiding all the vomit the next day.
Disagree. Worst of all is failing to avoid the vomit the next day.
Alas, my annual hibernation of 24 hours in my apartment continues where I stream content on my devices while I bake cookies and eat pizza. I will not step outside for anything or anyone. Thanks EV Grieve for the heads up.
My Wife and I are using the same avoidance plan we used last for Santa con, we’re on our way to Pt.Pleasant NJ.
And they start so early, very not old school EV. Shelter in place.
Hide the women and children!!
Last year was so much better than previous years. If they do in fact start on 140th street and Broadway, that's so far from the EV... surely these are good signs!
I was beginning to worry we wouldn't even get our annual Santacon story from Grieve which one could argue might have been worse than the event itself
I wish they would bring back Quaaludes. For all of us, not just for me. The world would be a better place.
As a good friend when interviewed by Fox News at least 10 years called it a "Bromageddon". And as I always say re this CF, if this was a POC event versus a true example of white privilege, the National Guard would be called out.
"If they do in fact start on 140th street and Broadway,"
This is a feint. It's starting point is always somewhere else but ground zero every year is the EV and its neighboring hoods, the LES, Gramercy, etc.
literally who cares....same curmudgeons who object to dogs in halloween costumes...only happens once a year...
I can guarantee that the Venn Diagram of EVGrievers who hate SantaCon and EVGrievers who love the Tompkins Square Halloween Dog Parade is a circle, so you're barking up the wrong Christmas tree with this one.
Too broke to leave my apartment. So it goes.
I don't have any problem with SantaCon the participants seem to be having a good time, and the event brings in needed revenue to local LES/EV bars. Once in a while some of the Santas and Elves get a little drunk, but they usually have friends with them to help them out. It's all part of the fun.
"literally who cares"
New here? Well why don't you use this blog's search engine and see over the various years how this POS event is universally hated by people who love living here. I guess we can expect from you the "move to" line.
People clean up after the dogs!
It wasn’t bad last year. Hopefully it’s not as bad this year.
It’s annoying but More festive than the lines for matcha, drug addicts yelling into the WiFi phone kiosk and building trash forts, and the women selling donated food from charities and stolen Trader Joe salmon on the sidewalk.
As someone who worked as a waiter and bartender, I spent many years working on this dreadful day. Not all, but many participants were disrespectful and so inebriated, they were unable to sign their CC slip, let alone leave a tip. Some were even asked to leave due to rowdy behaviour. I left the restaurant world in 2022, so maybe things have improved? My heart still goes out to everyone in this industry who has to show up tomorrow. Unless you have worked this day, the other commenters have no idea how awful it can be. I will stay in my cozy apartment with my cat and watch holiday movies.
From today's NY Times:
"Everyone Hates SantaCon. He Made a Movie About It.
Seth Porges shows the event in all its raucousness, but he is also sympathetic to its origins. The trailer for the documentary opens with a voice declaring that “this is not the most wonderful time of the year.” Between images of revelers making merry or making trouble — and police officers making arrests — words flash on the screen describing SantaCon as “the most feared, most reviled, most hated event on the planet.”
"Porges got access to video footage from the first SantaCons, in San Francisco in the 1990s. While the Santas drank a little too much even then, “what struck me was how different the people around them were,” Porges said. “They didn’t know what this was, so rather than being instantly disgusted, the faces of onlookers are awash with joy, wonder, surprise.”
Porges said he came to see SantaCon as “a Frankenstein story, a story of what happens when you create something and then you lose control of it.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/12/nyregion/santacon-documentary.html
Nah. I loathe santacon, I am indifferent to the dogs. But I also hate the drunken slob brunch tourists who decend on the EV every other weekend too.
For us it's no worse than any of the other drunken holidays: New Years, St Patrick's Day, Gay Pride, Halloween, Santa Con. Stay inside. Lock the doors. Hide the women and children. The only similar scale event that has great vibes seemingly is the Dance Parade. Happy holidays everyone! JG
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