Every December for the last 14 years, Cacophonous Santas have been visiting cities around the world, engaging in a bit of Santarchy as part of the annual Santacon events.
It all started back in 1994 when several dozen Cheap Suit Santas paid a visit to downtown San Francisco for a night of Kringle Kaos. Things have reached Critical Xmas and Santarchy is now a global phenomenon.
You'd better watch out! Santa's coming to town!
Santacon 2007 Information
and Event Coverage
- For the most part Santarchy! is an archive only. We don't do any active planning on this website, however we will mention upcoming Santacons that have their information posted online.
- If you are looking for Santacon planning info, try contacting your local lodge of The Cacophony Society or the Santacon and Santarchy tribes.
- We do not condone or encourage any kind of vandalism or violence at a Santacon event. Our santas do not destroy property, steal merchandise or do harm to others.
- Santarchy is not a movement, that's what you do in the bathroom. In addition to that, the annual Santacon events are not a protest against Christmas or commercialization. Really, it's just a bunch of santas getting together to have a good time.
- We do not provide or sell any stock photos or video footage and all images on this website are copyright of their owners. If you want to use any photos or videos on this website, please contact the owner directly.
- We do not do interviews with the media and so on. We're not actively involved with organizing any of the Santacon events (see #1), so if you are looking for people to interview, try contacting the organizers of various regional Santacon events.
- We have absolutly nothing to do with any idiot santas you may have heard about in New Zealand. Contrary to misreporting by the media, they are not associated Santarchy or the Santacon events.
- If you came here looking for Chuck Palahniuk, he's the one drinking cheap tequila over here.
January 2008
December 2007
August 2007
December 2006
November 2006
March 2006
January 2006
December 2005
Do you have a santacon website you would like to add to the archives?
Contact us at:
hohoho AT santarchy DOT com
Make sure to mention what which city it took place in.
"You'd Better Watch Out:
Portland Santacon '96"
Weird America's San Francisco Santacon '95
This site is maintained by Santa Squid (retired), with occasional input from Santa Melmoth (retired), both veterans of the great Santa wars 1994-98.
With special guest bloggers Santa de Nada & o'Santa Bin Laden
This blog runs on WordPress (ask Santa to bring it to you for Christmas)
this website is licensed under a
Creative Commons License
Los Angeles Santacon On Marketplace Radio
Rico Gagliano did a very amusing radio segement on Los Angeles Santacon today for American Public Media’s Marketplace: “Rebels without a Claus”
This by far is one of the best reports on Santacon that I’ve come across. Some media outlets are finally starting to do their homework. Keep up the good work boys and girls and Santa will bring you something nice this year.
photo credit: Kathryn Hill
Portland Mercury Santacon Article
Check out Marjorie Skinner’s The Portland Mercury article on Santacon that came out today: “Yes, There is a Santa Mob”
For the most part, Marjorie actually seems to understand what Santarchy/Santacon is all about and she’s even included some fairly accurate historical information. She also mentions the Auckland, New Zealand Santa event, but in proper prospective to the Portland Santacon, which is much closer to what most Santacon events are like. Notice how she wrote the entire article without once calling us a “movement” or “protest” event. Bravo! Now if only the idiots at AP/Retuers/UPI could do the same.
Back in 1996, the Portland Cacophony Society hosted the first Santacon to take place outside of San Francisco, which then led to other US cities hosting the event and a few years later going international.
More write-ups and photos from this year’s Portland Santacon can be found in the 2005 archives.
photo credit: Wm Leler
Santarchy History: The Early Years
Dateline, San Francisco: Midget Dressed as Santa Disembowels Carmelite Nun with Teeth While Hundreds of Yobs Dressed as Santa Cheer
Now that I have your attention:
Santarchy: a brief history.
Santa names have been obscured to protect the guilty.
Talk about an absurd one trick pony event with a half-life of Strontium 90! The first “SantaCon†took place in San Francisco in 1994 and was sponsored by The San Francisco Cacophony Society. The original inspiration came from an earlier SF adventure club called The Suicide Club. The Founder and Avatar of The Suicide Club, Gary Warne decided to organize a non-political, purely surreal Santa prank event after reading a Mother Jones article about a Danish political group dressing as Santa’s and mobbing a Copenhagen Dept. store just before Christmas. Gary’s untimely death and the demise of the Suicide Club put the kibosh on this super obvious, (destined to be) Yule-time tradition. Gary’s idea, which was eventually given life years later by Cacophony was simply to play with the archetypal image of Santa using a barrage of many Santa’s (hopefully) inducing a psychedelic reaction from the public while the core of Santa’s had a real adventure and a lot of fun while goofing it up at various downtown X-mas locations. Had the Suicide Club organized the event it would have fit in nicely with other Club winners such as Clowns on the Bus (dozens of seemingly unrelated clowns going to work, all waiting at succeeding bus stops along the Geary bus line on a commute morning,) The Mud People (the mechanics should be obvious; this event was reprised with great success on Rodeo Dr. by L.A. Cacophony in ’94,) and many other public pranks pulled in the late 70’s & early 80’s. Alas, it was not to be. The Suicide Club, best known for climbing major suspension bridges, throwing insane costumed events in cemeteries, abandoned breweries and sewers, and for infiltrating cults such as the Moonies and the American Nazi Party left only a forlorn Suicide note from the Caliph of the North Pole.
Flash forward:
Inspired by the Suicide Club idea and the Danish group, Santa Rob decides he wants to organize a Santa event for Cacophony. He enlists the help of Santa M2 & (yours truly) Santa Melmoth and lists the event in Rough Draft, the Cacophony Society newsletter. Professional bus driver Santa Alex is drafted to haul the Krimson Kringles about downtown SF.We get in the bus & end up downtown. We take a Cable Car up Nob Hill hit a few hotels & descend into Union Square where after making a pass thru Macy’s, I don a body harness and get “hanged by the neck†on scaffold in front of The Saint Francis Hotel around midnight. We didn’t drink much at all and (with the exception of the hanging) almost all interactions with the public were fun, funny and amiable. This 1st event is so perfect and such an unbelievably fun time, most of the Santa’s seem to believe once is enough – why try & recreate such magically singular experience? The ever-brilliant Santa Mangrinus in his “zine†(remember zines?) Twisted Times, while discussing another event of epically stupid proportions that we had all had a hand in noted dryly: Anything worth doing is worth driving into the ground. This brilliant adage applied as aptly to the impending Santa Deluge.
Of course we did it again! We start at the ice skating rink at Embarcadero & Market where, as we are suiting up some bad Santa’s engage in a snowball fight (the zamboni scrapings from the rink leave a huge pile of soft slush side the rink) with a bunch of 10 year old’s which culminates in the Santa’s chasing the kids across & out of the park, to the amused concern of their parents (the Santa’s parents! Hohohohoho) This is the year we learn when a group of pranksters become a stupid mob. The number is around 100. You can’t see everything the Santa’s are doing. You can’t intercede between really dumb, drunk and malicious Santa’s and the authorities if you can’t see em. The control Santa’s are unable to piss on the various holiday fires. One Santa in particular is responsible for most of the violent chaos. I’ll use a pseudonym: SANTA CHRIS RADCLIFFE, 1140 Corondolet St, New Orleans, LA. 504-606-6156!!!! Screw MY Redwing boots to the redwood deck while passed out on cheap gin and then hose me down with a water hose AND film it and show the film to 600 people at MY party, motherfucker!!!! Hohohohohohohohoho!! Santa_______ as we’ll call him from now on, pretty much invented all of the bad, stupid Santa activities that have become de rigeur for santas like the New Zealand crew of this year. On the 2nd Santacon in 1995, Santa_______ insulted pedestrians, made lewd comments to passing ladies, threatened security officers and generally did for Santa what Harvey Keitel did for the NYPD in the Abel Ferera movie Bad Lieutenant. Santa_______ crowned his evening activities by getting in a shoving match with young, macho security guards at The Emporium and telling them: …. “What’r you punks gonna do? There’s a HUNDRED OF US!!!!†Oh, there were other Bad Santas. Santa Robert (not to be confused with the benign & low key SantaCon originator Santa Rob) swiped a bottle of Skyye Vodka off a families table at a debutante party we crashed in the Venetian Room of the Fairmont Hotel. He pounded the whole bottle. He later projectile vomited on the Geary 38 bus as we were attempting to escape the police. Santa’s Flash & Dana spirited him off the bus before we were detained by the cops, no doubt saving him a night in jail. After escorting Santa off the fleeing bus the heat found a nicely packaged commercial looking “Santa’s Heroin Cooking Kit†containing a spoon, lighter, big rubber band & syringe! Earlier Santa’s P & R staged a mock Santassasination in Union Square using a very realistic looking starters pistol which they ditched in the mob as police zeroed in after the loud guns report. Cops got the piece, too. Elsewhere, cops nailed a lady Santa for allegedly baring her breasts. Two Santa’s were taken from the ill-fated Geary 38 and arrested after one of them was mistaken for Santa_________ who had mysteriously disappeared. Like most natural disasters (Katrina, the Bubonic Plague, Michael Jackson, etc.) it takes years of research to find out what really happened. Fortunately at the time two friendly journalists printed largely positive accounts of the event (SF Weekly & SF Bay Guardian). The Daily’s were less forgiving (San Francisco Chronicle).
We were determined never to do it again after all that! Then our friends in Portland Cacophony decided they would do a SantaCon. We figured, what the hell. Portland was such a sleepy, calm, reasonable place. What could possibly go wrong there?
Kathryn Hill’s Los Angeles Santacon Photos
Photographer santa Kathryn Hill captured all the action at last weekend’s Los Angeles Santacon with her wonderful set of photos. More LA photos can be found in the 2005 archives.
Check out the December 18th Los Angeles Times article on Los Angeles Santacon: “Ho Ho Huh? Some Truly Independent Clauses”
photo credit: Kathryn Hill
Stuff Article On Auckland Santas
New Zealand news website STUFF has a much more in-depth and accurate report on what actually happened at the Auckland Santa event: “Auckland police hope Santa mayhem a one-off”
Part of the article quotes Alex Dyer, organizer/spokesman for the event:
Alex Dyer, who organised the Santa spree, explained the antics as a group of men who liked having a drink and a laugh.
“It doesn’t mean anything and it’s not against anyone. It’s just having fun. That’s what life’s about.”
While Mr Dyer did not condone illegal behaviour, he washed his hands of any responsibility.
“I can’t physically restrain people from doing stupid things. I can’t say, ‘okay 50 drunk men, all listen to me: Please, nobody do anything stupid’.
“If someone does something stupid and gets caught for it, that’s their problem.”
He said Saturday was not an anti-commercialisation protest.
“People do Santarchy in other countries, sure, and for them maybe that’s their aim, but with us we’re just dressing up as Santa and getting drunk. We just like booze.”
Mr Dyer said he had never been arrested, and he had never met the people who were arrested.
“I had a great time.”
Radio New Zealand Interview
On Sunday evening I did a radio inteview with Jim Mora and a panel of “experts” on Radio New Zealand. They had me on the show to talk about santarchy.com and our reaction to the Auckland Santa controversy. Alex Dyer, a spokesman for the Auckland Santa event, was on the show as well. He gives a much better explanation of what actually happened, compared to what was reported by the world media. As always, don’t believe everything you read.
The interview segment is called “The Panel”. You’ll need to forward about 8 minutes in to get to the actual Santarchy discussion.
Overall, I think it was a good piece and should help give a bit of balance to things. Hint: if you’re doing an story or blogging about the New Zealand Santa event, please listen to this interview first and read the STUFF article, as well as check out the information on our website, especially the Mini-FAQ on the sidebar.
Chewbacca Sings!
Thanks to Texas Monkey for the tip!
What’s It All About?
Apparently About.com thinks we’re an Alternative Religion. Now that’s being creative.
Excuse me while I go worship at the fruitcake alter while taking 40 lashes with a candy cane by an Elf priest.
photo credit: Ray Olivares
Zombie Claus 2005
Zombie Claus 2005 took place last weekend and was a huge success. Organizer Mark Maynard reports on all of the gory details.
Rumor has it that the zombies were pissed-off that the Christmas season is beginning way to early and starting to encroach on Halloween, so the zombies took their revenge on the santas, turning them into zombies.
UPDATE: Mark also did an radio invterview on Ann Arbor’s WCBN about the whole affair.
Santarchy Logo
Christmas came early for santarchy.com today in the form of an awesome new logo, courtesy of Ghostex. Santa’s going to bring him a bottle of Scotch this year, instead of the usual coal we give him.
NewsRex Reports On Auckland Santarchy
Speaking of extinct media outlets, NewsRex has just filed their Dinosaur Comics report on the Auckland Santa situation.
Extra candy canes to Scout for letting us know about this one!
Ich bin ein Santa
Santarchy welcomes Berlin, who had their very first Santacon last Saturday. Roman von Contzen from ENergylab was on the scene and covered all the action, as well as shooting some great photos.
photo credit: Roman von Contzen (ENergylab)
Santa Ray Ray’s NYC Santacon Photos
Ray Olivares (Santa Ray Ray) shot some amazing photos of this year’s NYC Santacon. More NYC photos can be found in the 2005 archives.
photo credit: Ray Olivares
New Zealand Santarchy Follow-Up
It turns out that the controversial Auckland Santa event, was organized by the online skateboard magazine Muckmouth in their forums.
This comment was left on our previous NZ blog post by one of that event’s organizers:
Hello from Auckland, New Zealand, the international home of Santarchy!!!
Despite the moodiness on national radio over here, I assume you lot are stoked at the free publicity!
Santarchy in Auckland has been going for 6 years over here, and rather than being clueness idiots, we are hunky and sensible and it was more a case of a few bad eggs poisoning the eggnog…
There was some major misreporting and chinese whispers. Breaking bottles and urinating under a bridge, became throwing rocks at buses and urinating on cars from an overpass.
The ‘organisers’ as they were, saw little in the way of crime other than one santa attempting to board a foreign vessel by scaling 20 metres along a rope 60 feet in the air. The difficulty and motor skills involved in this task alone should be a defense in itself of being “drunk†and “disorderlyâ€.
We expect to be fully vindicated by a documentary screening on Sky One in New Zealand on Christmas Eve.
We would certainly appreciate a little more unity and understanding between Santas and ask not to be judged on the behaviour of a few.
Lots of love,
Santa…
As expected, it looks like the media blew this way out of proportion.
UPDATE 1: The Radio New Zealand interview is now online
UPDATE 2: STUFF article on Auckland Santas has more accurate reporting
photo credit: Mark Barber
New Zealand Santa’s (allegedly) Run Amok!
News Reports on Santas in Auckland, New Zealand
Just because criminals use ski-masks (or santa suits in this case) doesn’t mean everyone wearing a ski mask is a criminal. We (the maintainters of santarchy.com) haven’t been in a red suit since 1998. We’re retired. Out of control Santas’s in your town? Blame society. We did this event to have fun and toy with the goofy cultural archetypes represented in X-mas imagery. Is this a political Statement? Not on your life. If bunch of Frat Dorks use this idea & imagery to terrorize their town — it’s not our business. News reports notwithstanding, the truth as to motives and even actual incidents is rarely presented in these often exaggerated press accounts. Santa should spred good cheer. If he doesn’t, spank him! Or send him to jail!
Hysteria is the meat of the internet.
- Santa Melmoth & Santa Squid
UPDATE 1: The Radio New Zealand interview is now online
UPDATE 2: STUFF article on Auckland Santas has more accurate reporting
Santarchy Invades Blogistan
Santa’s got a brand new blog. Ho! How do you top an invasion of Antarctica? Send the red menace to the Blogosphere!
That’s right, it’s santarchy.com, now with blog, powered by the santastic WordPress.
Special thanks to Factory Joe for a little pre-launch design advice. We’ll leave something nice under the tree for him.