Santa Con 2018 Invades Union Square

The annual #SantaCon invaded #SanFrancisco Union Square on Saturday, December 8.

Ten's of thousands of participants, dressed in Santa Claus and holiday outfits, descended upon San Francisco for a day of, singing, dancing, and drinking.

Lots and lots of drinking.

As usual, numerous "Santa Claus" splinter groups broke off from the main event to drink at the various drinking establishments around the city.

However, not all establishments in the city had open arms for the group of drunken Santa’s, with many bars and restaurant banning the festive groups from the establishments due to extremely poor behavior from the groups in prior years. Including acts of vandalism and trashing numerous local businesses.

What makes Santa Con San Francisco 2018 unique is the fact that the original organizers of Santa Con officially “killed” the event a few years ago. Feeling that the event had become an excuse for people to just drink and get wasted, organizers felt that the original message of mocking the capitalist taint of the #Christmas holiday had been lost.

The City and County of San Francisco did not approve a permit for this year’s event.

And, from what we can tell, even though this year’s event collected hundreds of new toys for needy children, its highly unlikely the city and county will approve a permit for the event in 2019.

But, either way, we will be there with our cameras along with the thousands of “Santa Claus” looking to party.

Credit: Oakland Photo Vault