Wild winter weather didn’t deter thousands of St. Nick lookalikes — and a few Grinches — from descending on downtown San Francisco for the city’s booziest holiday street party.
SantaCon capped off a Saturday in the city that began with a tornado warning and ended with revelers knocking back drinks for the yearly Santa-themed bar crawl.
While the winter chill may have prompted more people this year to bundle up and duck inside, 24-year-old Los Angeles native Aly Vitticks said she jumped on the chance to ring in the holidays with her friends.
“I hate that it’s been raining and cold because you can’t wear your cute outfits and stuff,” she said.
But the day dof drinking has been a plus.
“So far, I love that it starts so early,” she said. “You just wake up and you get dressed in your Santa outfit and start drinking.”
For Brenda Cavalero, a Lima, Peru, native who joined her family for the festivities, one of the highlights was taking public transit to the event along with a host of other people in red, white, and green costumes.
“It’s a good experience for my family to take the Muni and all that,” the 34-year-old said. “I love that.”
Longtime SantaConners and longer-time friends Mike Mueller, 65, and Tomm Heath, 68, — “the only Tomm you’ll meet with two ‘M’s,'” he said — have fond memories of being part of the spectacle over the years.
“We generally go down to North Beach, and we used to go to a place called Calzone’s and watch the tour buses come by, and they would all get excited on the top of the tour bus,” Heath recounted. “So that was a lot of fun.”
Sure, things can get unruly.
“There is urination in the alley and all that,” Heath acknowledged.
“But this,” he said of the tamer daytime portion of the event, “this is the purest part.”
