NEW YORK -- Santas arrived by the thousands and oversized elves cavorted with saucy Mrs. Clauses as a police helicopter circled overhead. Welcome to SantaCon, the annual Christmastime parade-meets-pub-crawl that was hoping this year would persuade New York it's more nice than naughty.
Saturday's festivities began with a mix of safety messages and psyching-up: "Can I get a 'ho'?!"
Jessica Carr and Victoria Pirolli said they were at their fifth SantaCon for the creativity, not the carousing that earned the event an out-of-control reputation in recent years. Organizers said the event also raises tens of thousands of dollars for charity.
"We have fun," Pirolli said. "We don't pee in bushes or anything."
Tracing its origins to a prankish, anti-consumerist gathering in San Francisco in 1994, SantaCon has mushroomed into events in hundreds of cities, with New York's generally the biggest.
It's also drawn criticism, particularly after the 2012 and 2013 celebrations generated two arrests, 85 summonses for disorderly conduct and other offences, plus online videos of brawling St. Nicks.
A spokesman for the New York Police Department said there were no reported arrests Saturday evening.
Pressured to clean up SantaCon's act, organizers began telling police their plans in 2013. This year, they released their route days ahead of time and agreed to tweet police advice about pedestrian safety.
Still, a dozen city and state officials publicly aired concerns about potential binge drinking and bad behaviour. Police Commissioner William Bratton on Friday warned "anybody who wants to come into the city and raise hell dressed up as Santa Claus -- we're not going to tolerate it." NYPD Chief James O'Neill suggested the event was a burden at a time of heightened security concerns after attacks by extremists in Paris and elsewhere.
To four-time SantaCon-goer Michael Fincher, troubled times were an argument for the celebration, not against it.
"With what's going on in the world today, we need something lighter," he said.
