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
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
comment by Miguel Lopez lopez
on Monday, December 19th, 2005 at 1:32 am
You are just a load of drunken “Wankers” Get a life.
comment by Irene De Luca
on Monday, December 19th, 2005 at 4:18 am
Dear Sirs
I’m writing you from Mediaset, italian free television
We would like to dedicate to you a small reportage during one of our news transmissions.
please let us know if you cand send us some images by mail and all details you think important to talk about you.
Thanks for your attention
Irene De Luca
Desk Wrights Acquisition
RTI MEDIASET
PAL. DEI CIGNI
MILANO 2/SEGRATE
(MILAN )
ITALY
+39 02 21022755
trackback by Larko lobiseb
on Monday, December 19th, 2005 at 9:37 am
Lõbusad ja vägivaldsed meeleavaldused
Blogisin täna hommikul oma soomekeelses ajaveebis Uus-Meremaa purjus “jõuluvanade” laamendamisest Aucklandi kaubanduskeskuses ( Pukeilla jäi ryyppy päälle ).
comment by Santa Melmoth
on Monday, December 19th, 2005 at 12:51 pm
After hearing their side of the story from the Auckland New Zealand Santa’s it seems that “the press†in typical haste to sell condoms, soft drinks & christmas ornaments by any sensationalistic means neccessary went off half-cocked and slandered the poor Kiwi-Santa’s. It doesn’t sound as though these Santa’s did anything much worse than we ever did in our glorious, sophmoric prime! Good on ya, Santa! Good luck with your bail fund - keep us posted.
comment by Jason Brown
on Monday, December 19th, 2005 at 1:03 pm
I guess we’ll have to wait until the truth comes out. The MSN news piece made this sound to a pretty bad thing that took place, where on here you state “was more a case of a few bad eggs poisoning the eggnog…”, and that the worse thing that happened was one santa trying to board a cruise ship illegally. What about the news of the security gaurds who had to be taken to the hospital after being attacked by the samts when the guards stopped this guy from scaling the ship? If that’s true,…then this is absolutely horrible, and all involved should receive jail sentences!
pingback by Santarchy! (Santacon) » NewsRex Reports On Auckland Santarchy
on Monday, December 19th, 2005 at 1:17 pm
[...] Speaking of extinct media outlets, NewsRex has just filed their Dinosaur Comics report on the Auckland Santarchy situation. [...]
comment by nzsanta
on Tuesday, December 20th, 2005 at 12:00 am
i took part in the auckland santarchy, that is true security gaurds did get treated for small cuts but what was failed to mention that it was after they took to one santa and reindeer that was there leaving reindeer waking up in hospital the next morning not knowing what had happend with a neck brace and bad neck injurys…
comment by Le_SigNagE
on Tuesday, December 20th, 2005 at 4:25 am
Well i have just read a report by the BBC… i think it is hilarious! I has no hope for christmas this year but you guys have filled me with christmas spirit because after all this is what christmas is really about… mindless vandalism and petty theft.
comment by Techno Santa
on Tuesday, December 20th, 2005 at 9:35 am
Appreciate hearing the other side of the stories, but would much prefer to do so without the unthinking racist idiom. “Chinese whispers” somehow mean dishonesty? Please.
comment by Pete
on Tuesday, December 20th, 2005 at 10:40 am
“A group of 40 people dressed in Santa Claus outfits, many of them drunk, went on a rampage through Auckland, New Zealand’s largest city, robbing stores, assaulting security guards and urinating from highway overpasses, police said Sunday.”
dang media, always ragging on the good guys…
comment by Kim
on Tuesday, December 20th, 2005 at 12:15 pm
Nice to know the santas were actually well behaved.
In answer to Techno Santa, “Chinese Whispers” doesn’t mean dishonesty, and I don’t think it’s racist.
“The telephone game, also known as Chinese whispers and whisper down the lane, is a game often played by children at parties or in the playground in which a phrase or sentence is passed on from one player to another, but is subtly altered in transit.”
Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_whispers
comment by tom
on Tuesday, December 20th, 2005 at 2:01 pm
Its great to see that you guys at Santarchy.com changed your tune when you saw the other side of the story.
Those kiwi santas werent all angels but some of the reports were ludicrous. It has been really interesting watching the story spread and witnessing the behaviour of the world’s press.
It goes to show you should question everything you read, especially on the Internet.
pingback by Santarchy! (Santacon) » Radio New Zealand Interview
on Tuesday, December 20th, 2005 at 3:22 pm
[...] 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 Santarchy controversy. Alex Dyer, a spokesman for the Auckland Santarchy event, was on the show as well. He gives a much better explaination of what actually happened, compared to what was reported by the world media. As always, don’t believe everything you read. [...]
comment by Angelito
on Wednesday, December 21st, 2005 at 7:43 am
You are bunch of criminals!!!
comment by PhantBunny
on Thursday, December 22nd, 2005 at 5:44 am
hmm. “chinese whispers” … it’s probably just a throw-back to less-PC times, similar to the “miss mary mack” rhyme that kids used to do (there were some rather non-PC comments in the rhyme–and i don’t know if they still sing that, or if it’s only in the States that they do this).
still, in Techno Santa’s defense, in the six months i spent living in Auckland, i noticed that many (and notice: i say many, not all) native Kiwis were terribly non-PC towards ANY Asians living there. but then, it might have just been the college crowd i was hanging around; but it was still kind of disturbing to hear people using racial slurs in the 21st Century. very naive of me, i know.
but all that aside, i love New Zealand and miss its country-stopping sport (long-live the All-Blacks –and Shortland Street, which is not sport, i know, but still …). and yay for crazy Santas!
comment by Rusty
on Thursday, December 22nd, 2005 at 8:31 pm
Ha! I know exactly where that is in Auckland. I stayed at a hotel in the same block as that Santa. The strangest part about it all is that it’s summer down there. So you have this big giant Santa stuck on the side of Whitcoul’s and it’s like 80 something degrees.
comment by Barry
on Wednesday, December 28th, 2005 at 11:20 pm
I saw a small article in a Hawaii Newspaper about ‘Santarchy’ - made it sound like riots and mayhem occured - it included a statement from a ‘Santarchy Spokesperson.’
When I saw it IT MADE ME LAUGH SO HARD I ALMOST PEED MY PANTS.
I thought the group probably wrote up a great press release first, alerted the press and then went out and got drunk and did the santas on a rampage thing, and lazy media organizations quoted it because it was topical and sensationalist - which is all that’s needed to get in the newspaper really. It looked to me like a great media coup - like the story was mostly the work of a great satrical minds as a prank that was bait designed to get in the paper.
I wound up making copies of the article and sending them to my relatives in their Christmas cards. Thank you Santarchy!
pingback by The Podcast Network :: Geeks Of Hazzard » Blog Archive » The Geeks of Hazzard #004 - The Geeks of Hangover
on Tuesday, January 3rd, 2006 at 8:29 pm
[...] Michael J. Fox in negotiations for Back to the Future IV WTF BBQ!!11` Genuine Hasbro Star Wars toys Santarchy? Mario Kart Arcade cabinet and unit is yours for only US$17k! Japanese women loooove the fart. Platinum Grit — best comic ever? Yes, that’s right! Knitta, please! Rumours abound of a new Star Trek film, starring Captains Archer, Picard, and Shatner. Google Earth, right, but for the entire freaking Sol System! Acheron 2: It’s all over y’all. Bubba Hotep Nosferatu, and Bobba freaking Sasquatch! [...]
pingback by Hut- och harmlöst frÃ¥n Larko » Blog Archive » Klapplös jul
on Thursday, June 1st, 2006 at 9:48 pm
[...] Därför var jag smÃ¥tt förbannad, dÃ¥ jag i morse läste i New Zealand Herald, att ett 40-tal berusade tomtklädda karlar hade busat i ett köpcentrum i Auckland. Visserligen finns det lite olika uppgifter i olika hÃ¥ll pÃ¥ webben, om det rörde sig om organiserade motstÃ¥ndare till den komersiella julen eller helt enkelt vanliga fyllon som brÃ¥kade under skydd av tomtedräkten. Förmodligen lite av vardera, om man dels fÃ¥r tro pÃ¥ Alex Dyer som säger sig vara organisatören till fyllefesten, dels skall ta allvar pÃ¥ den här postningen i Santarchy’s webbplats. [...]
comment by Steve the Pro
on Tuesday, November 13th, 2007 at 3:13 pm
Magnificent effort lads. Why can’t more people be this creative at Christmas?
comment by map of new zealand
on Monday, December 17th, 2007 at 12:20 am
I think they just wanted to get known and become a media hype but it seems that they have overdue it. I wonder if its really an intention or just a accidental situation, but I do agree that they should have not done it considering a lot of kids value the image of Santa during Christmas and they should have not ruin the image just because they are Santarchy.