SantaCon comes back to Asbury Park Saturday
Hundreds of Kris Kringles expected to congregate in Convention Hall
The Santas are coming!
Hordes of people dressed up as old Saint Nick are expected to gather in Convention Hall at noon Saturday, Dec. 14, before they parade down the boardwalk and into for the second year of SantaCon, Asbury Park.
The Asbury Park Santacon FAQ page describes it as “a non-denominational, non-commercial, non-political and non-sensical Santa Claus convention that occurs once a year for absolutely no reason. It’s a chance to spread holiday cheer in the most magical and absurd way possible.”
An information page that attempts to keep track of annual SantaCon events shows gatherings will take place in 317 locations throughout 44 countries this year.
The main organizer of SantaCon, Asbury Park — who prefers to remain anonymous, referring to himself only as “Swayze Claus” — acknowledges that the New York SantaCon has received negative press recently due to SantaCon revelers in recent past imbibing too many of the Christmas spirits, as opposed to spreading Christmas spirit. He is not hesitant to point out the Asbury Park event is not a bar crawl.
“It’s not a pub crawl,” he said. “I’m sure there are people that come just to drink, but it is not the main focus.”
“I used to go to the New York one … last year around 30,000 people showed up …it takes over Manhattan and the outer boroughs and a lot of people get arrested,” he said. So, being a resident of the greater Asbury area, Swayze Claus decided it was time to bring the convention of Clauses closer to home, as a way to draw people to the area after Hurricane Sandy, he said.
“We kind of felt that Asbury needed the business,” said Swayze Claus. “Certainly after Sandy happened. Local charities were in need — so I figured why not bring more people into Asbury during the off-season.”
Last year, about 600 people RSVP’d on the SantaCon Facebook page and around 300 showed up, resulting in 400 pounds of non-perishable food donations made to the FoodBank of Ocean and Monmouth Counties, he said.
To the best of his knowledge, there were no major incidents involving any of the Asbury Park SantaCon revelers.
“Everybody was respectful and awesome,” he said.
This year’s Facebook page shows just under 1000 people have signed up to attend, with another 400 people who have replied they will “maybe” show up.
Participants are urged to bring at least two nonperishable food items or a toy to Convention Hall before they head out en mass to spread the Christmas cheer around town. The food will again be donated to the Monmouth foodbank, and the toys will be donated to the Asbury Park Toy Drive, according to Swayze Claus.
The “real Santa” will also be sitting on his throne in front of the 26-foot Christmas tree in the Grand Arcade, ready and willing to take pictures, he said.
Swayze Claus will be live tweeting the location of the Santas throughout the evening.
“Walking around handing out candy canes and singing Christmas songs really gets me in the Christmas spirit,” he said. “Seeing a bunch of Santas on the beach is something spectacular.”
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