NEW YORK — The Santas are coming! Whether you love them or hate them, the jolly revelers of SantaCon will return to Manhattan on Saturday.
The bar crawl, which is also a charity fundraiser, will begin with a meetup around 10 a.m. at Broadway and 40th Street. Participating bars are sprawled around several Manhattan neighborhoods, including Midtown East, Midtown West and the East Village.
But they won’t be the only visitors from the North Pole this year. Elfcon, a family-friendly hot chocolate crawl, is planned for Sunday.
Folks interested in trying all of the sweet, chocolatey drinks the city has to offer should follow the Elfcon Twitter and Instagram accounts to find out where the central meet-up location will be before the cocoa crawl begins. However, you don’t need to wait until then to donate. Event organizers are raising money for The Trevor Project and the Making Headway Foundation.
This year will mark the return of SantaCon after organizers canceled last year’s event due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The bar crawl has become a polarizing holiday tradition in New York City. Many people who live or work in Manhattan have long-panned the alcohol-fueled behavior that would certainly put some participants on the naughty list, including brawls and arrests.
In recent years, the organizers of SantaCon have promoted a list of naughty and nice behavior while participants don the red suit. Called “Santa’s Code,” the recommendations include not messing with children, tipping bartenders and spreading joy, “not terror, not vomit, not trash.”
