Ten Thousand Santas
by Tod Seelie
With the arrival of the SANTACON documentary from Seth Porges, the acclaimed director of Class Action Park, I thought it was a good time to dig up my old photos from the 2007 and 2008 NYC SantaCons. I feel that I happened to catch the moment SantaCon switched tracks, from the jolly weirdo pranksters to the belligerent ho-ho-ho bros.
SantaCon was always chaotic, but it was in a sly and creative way, with an understanding that it was a spectacle for spectacle’s sake. There were participants and an audience, and it was for one as much as the other. Be the surrealist moment you want to see in a city.
But eventually SantaCon degenerated into just a horny bar crawl in a sea of Santa suits. The playful quasi-Situationists were replaced with sophomoric “can-I-get-away-with-this” jamokes hiding in costumes. When the shift moves from surreally crafted urban theatre to self-interested beer pitchers, you notice it.
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