SantaCon came to town. Again.

Here are a few scenes from the latest SantaCon invasion on Saturday afternoon... the first batch of photos are by Derek Berg...





















Readers/residents in general felt as if there were more participants this year. (I also heard from people who thought the crowds thinned out earlier than in previous Cons.) Complaints about this alleged charity event included the usual sightings of Santas throwing up and using the sidewalks as a toilet ... as well as a general obnoxious indifference about blocking sidewalks, forcing residents — ones who didn't feel like plowing through the crowds — into walking on the streets.

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EVG correspondent Steven took these photos from Second Avenue and Ninth Street, always a SantaCon stronghold ...



Once again, Solas on Ninth Street served as a "Special Santa Venue" ...



While the 13th Step and the Copper Still were not official "SantaCon Charity Venues," they each drew large crowds ...



... with the 13th Step charging a $5 entry fee...

Saturday's parting shot

How was your SantaCon? ... photo today by Derek Berg...

The East Village bars officially participating in SantaCon tomorrow

SantaCon unleashes its annual drunken sprawl tomorrow morning at 10 at Father Duffy Square, a section of Times Square on Seventh Avenue between 46th Street and 47th Street.

From there, the Santas will fan out to bars across the city, from Times Square and Chelsea to Gramercy Park and Union Square. The East Village will once again have a front-row seat for the red wave of store-bought Santa suits. Nearly a dozen EV bars are listed on the SantaCon website as "SantaCon Charity Venues." Meanwhile, Solas on Ninth Street receives official designation as a "Special Santa Venue."

Other local bars will likely be taking part aside from those listed, including the 13th Step on Second Avenue, which seems to always have the longest line of Santas waiting to enter.

SantaCon was reportedly going to happen aboard several party boats in the Skyport Marina off of 23rd Street on the East River. However, NY Waterway canceled the gig after local elected officials raised concerns.

In a letter signed by City Councilmember Keith Powers, State Sen. Brad Hoylman and Assemblymember Harvey Epstein: "we have serious concerns about the disruption it is likely to create for those who live in and travel through the area."

Instead, the rest of the city will now bear the brunt of this disruption.

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Here are a few Santa-free bars that I know about so far in the East Village ... please let me know of others... (to repeat: these are bars that are NOT letting in people in Santa costumes)...

-Double Down Saloon, 14 Avenue A
-dba, 41 First Ave.
-Sophie's, 507 E. Fifth St.
-Josie's, 520 E. Sixth St.
-Mona's, 224 Avenue B
-11th Street Bar, 510 E. 11th St.
-The Penny Farthing, 103 Third Ave.
-B-Side, 204 Avenue B
-Lucky, 168 Avenue B
-Drexler's, 9 Avenue A

'Go home Santa'

[Photo by Steven]

This sign is on the front door at dba on First Avenue between Second Street and Third Street ahead of SantaCon tomorrow.

The copy underneath a naked Santa (with seemingly ambiguous genitalia) reads:

It might be hard to realize with your super awesome santa hat on,

but try and understand:

Manhattan isn't a sprawling playground

built for your exclusive right to visit once a year

and puke and/or piss all over our homes and businesses.

That said, SantaCon is annually overrun with terrifying predators.

If you find yourself feeling unwell and in need of help please come in

and we will make sure you are safe, comfortable, hydrated, and have a way home.

dba loves you, always.

It's not immediately clear who the invitation inside is for: People fleeing SantaCon? SantaConners who may have had too much to drink ... or maybe SantaConners feeling creeped out by other SantaConners?

The dba Instagram account makes it more clear: No Santas, period...

View this post on Instagram

🚫🎅. Get away from the Santa's. Come hang with us. They aren't allowed in. Not them, their elves or* their damn reindeer. Let's keep the holidays happy and safe.

A post shared by d.b.a. (@d.b.a.eastvillage) on Dec 12, 2019 at 11:34am PST

SantaCon begins tomorrow in Times Square ... aside from bars in that area, as well as Midtown East and Murray Hill, more than a dozen East Village bars are officially participating. Find the list here. We'll do a separate post later listing the local bars taking part.

A call to cancel SantaCon

Steven spotted this poster this morning on the former Bean space on First Avenue and Ninth Street... a call to cancel SantaCon, which takes place this coming Saturday at unknown locations. (Their party yachts plan sunk.)

The poster ask several questions, including: "Sick of drunken Santas throwing up and urinating everywhere?"

If so, then there is a Cancel SantaCon petition that you can find here.

The posters are from @tglnyc, who brought us the "McTrump Value Meal" yesterday at McDonald's.

Ho, ho, ho now there's a SantaCon lawsuit

[Photo from 2018 by Derek Berg]

There’s no place like a courtroom for the holidays.

A pub crawl promoter, named as Eddie Miller in public documents and published reports, filed suit Friday in a Manhattan Federal Court seeking control over the SantaCon.org internet domain and its trademark registration.

Law360 has the details:

Miller's suit targets a business called Participatory Safety Inc., claiming its "SantaCon" mark is invalid and seeking an order that it may not assert control over domain names such as santacon.com and santacon.net.

"SantaCon is a descriptive, if not generic, term," the suit says. Miller also claims for damages, saying his business interests have been unlawfully disrupted.

According to Miller's suit, the defendant registered the domain name santacon.nyc in 2015, then applied for the SantaCon mark the following year, for use at "charitable fundraising" events.

Not long after that, persons unknown to Miller begin telling city pub owners that they were the "official SantaCon," says the suit, which presumably will attempt to name additional defendants.

"Whoever spoke to the bars told them not to do business with plaintiffs," according to the suit. In late 2016, persons unknown to Miller then emailed pubs, falsely calling him an impostor, according to the suit.

That year, a person going by the alias Kristopher Kringle attempted to force bar owners to pay him $400 per bar to allow SantaCon crawlers to enter their establishments, the suit says. That person, the suit says, is part of the defendant company's "smear campaign."

"Defendants' malicious acts have caused and continue to injure plaintiffs' ability to sell tickets to their SantaCon events all over the United States," the complaint says.

The suit also sheds light on the driving forces behind SantaCon, which Ben Yakas at Gothamist describes as the "city's stupidest annual event, a cultural void that provides an excuse for binge drinkers and obnoxious bros to let their alcoholism fly in public, all under the thin veneer of charity."

The Daily News listed the plaintiffs as Miller, Digital Marketing & Events, USMarketing.com and Damon's List.

For future reference: The case is Miller et al. v. Participatory Safety Inc. et al., case number 1:19-cv-06994, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

Meanwhile, here's the NYC date for SantaCon 2019...



H/T Carol from East 5th Street!