Thousands of Santas have taken to the streets of London, New York, San Francisco and a number of other cities around the word for this year’s SantaCon celebrations.
Streets around the globe have been teaming with a sea of red suits following the first weekend of the annual SantaCon celebrations. Santacon is a non-profit, non-political and non-religious Christmas parade that traditionally takes place in almost 400 cities in 52 countries across the world every December.
The event, which is part parade and part pub crawl, sees revellers dress up in Santa Claus costumes or as other Christmas characters.
The London parade, which took place on Saturday 9 December, began in Kings Cross and saw Santas spreading Christmas cheer in Liverpool Street, Westminster and Trafalgar Square. The 2017 New York City SantaCon took place on the same day, where a stepped-up police presence and 24-hour liquor ban curbed the disorder which has been seen in previous years.
SantaCon began in San Francisco in 1994 and has since evolved and spread to 52 countries around the world, with varying versions and interpretations, many of them with charitable links and altruistic intentions.
Next weekend sees Santacon events taking place in Dallas, Melbourne, Shanghai, Phuket and Prague, among others.