What’s with all the Santas? Did you see a crazy number of people downtown in Santa outfits, maybe the one in the Trump mask, some of them bar-hopping?
If you were in downtown Seattle any time after noon Saturday, you likely noticed hundreds of people in Santa outfits. Some in the standard costume, some in more innovative red outfits, like the Santa with a Trump mask, or young women giving Santa a boudoir look.
SantaCon is the worldwide event that takes place in 383 cities in 52 countries during various weekend days in December.
It began in 1994 in San Francisco, with the idea of all those Santasinducing a “psychedelic reaction from the public.” Well, anyway.
Seattle joined Tokyo, Napoli in Italy, and Bermuda in celebrating it on Saturday. Santas put in a long day – noon until bar closing at 2 a.m.
The official organization tries hard to dispel the event’s reputation as being an excuse for hopping from bar to bar and slugging down the drinks.
The Seattle SantaCon Facebook site tells participants, “Santa obeys the law. Santa doesn’t drink in public or smoke in parks . . . Pace yourself, Santa. Know your limits. Remember to eat! . . . Santa doesn’t drink and drive!”
It even offered a $50 Lyft code.
And there certainly didn’t seem to be drunkards careening in street for what Seattle SantaCon says were to be more than 2,000 participants.
But they did look like a bunch of happy Santas, and certainly something was making them not mind the 31-degree temperature.