It's ON!  It's SANTACON!!!!

Oh yes.  Finally.  Its the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!  It's time for Santacon!!  For those of you unfamiliar with this most festive fiesta of spontaneous pointlessness, every year, thousands of Santas descend on multiple cities throughout the world bringing good cheer, handing out gloves, socks, hats etc to the homeless as well as candy canes to innocent bystanders.  Its also known as Santarchy and has got a bit of a bad rap in recent years, due to the excessive drunken antics of some of the more naughty Santas and some bars and restaurants have actually banned red-suited revelers from their premises!  But, despite this, it was one of those random events that just Had to Be Done - and what was even better was that it was free!!  No Living Social, Groupons or TravelZoo vouchers required!

Santa's Pole

So, continuing what seems to have been the theme for the year, I decided to be a little different and - rather than go as Santa - instead to get my Prancer on and dress in full head-to-hoof plush reindeer splendor!  Thank you, Party City!  My Crazy Companion for this particular adventure was my fellow Brit and namesake Sarah and, given we had an Ugly Christmas Sweater Boat Cruise to look forward to in the evening, the day promised to be quite something...

Sarah arrived around 10.30am, ready for us to descend upon Union Square at High Noon for the Gathering of the Santas.   She'd originally ordered a Christmas Tree outfit, but it turned out to be absolutely massive, so instead she'd opted for sexy Santa lady, complete with foxy boots with furry toppers (steady).   About 11.30am, and it was time to hitch a ride on Santa's sleigh - aka the MUNI - to Union Square.

Little known secret is that Santa's weekend car is the MUNI

O.M.G.  As soon as i stepped outside the apartment and started heading into town, people were stopping and staring, smiling and pointing at this crazy person dressed as a reindeer!   I was a velveteen rockstar!!  A bona fide Celebrity for the Day!  A couple of folk stopped us and asked to take our picture, which was fun - and a prelude of what was to come!

The MUNI was already starting to fill up with Santas, much to the bemusement of regular everyday folk on their way into town to do some Christmas shopping.  We ran into our first set of Santas, one with an impressive looking staff (not sure what that was about) and, as we got closer to Union Square, the red tide of festiveness got thicker and thicker!   Taking the escalator up out of the MUNI station and onto the street, the slight taste of "fame" i'd gotten was nothing compared to the reaction I got in Union Square itself!  It was crazy!!  Within the space of about an hour, I must have had at least 100 folk ask if they could take a picture with me - I felt as if I was Mickey Mouse at Disney!!  There were a couple other reindeer-esque costumes, but no-one else with the same one as me, which really surprised me - it was such an obvious choice (at least in my mind!), I thought loads of people would have bought this outfit from Party City!  But no - it was just one reindeer amongst literally hundreds of Santa's - and it was great fun, especially seeing the kids faces light up when they saw me.  That was very cute.  Not that I could see much out of my reindeer head, mind - i had a very limited field of vision, about a foot (hoof?) in front of me, which made navigating my way through throngs of people somewhat interesting at times!

Just your everyday commuter reindeer

Now, I had no idea what to expect at all - I knew the whole thing was pretty loose, but I think we were both expecting just a little more organization than there was - which was precisely none!  No announcement at noon or cheers to welcome in the holiday season - no organizers advising which routes to go, or handing out Santacon maps, nothing!  So, instead, we just hung out in Union Square for an hour or so, soaking up the festively chaotic atmosphere and enjoying watching everyone arrive in their costumes.  There were some great - and not so great - outfits - one of my favorites were the Men In Black Santas, seeking to preserve the mystery of Papa Noel.  And - of course - it wouldn't be San Francisco if we didn't have at least some gratuitous nudity, so that was - um - fun.

Santa anarchy in Union Square.  Can you spot the reindeer?

In the end, our reveling was cut somewhat short by - what else in SF? - rain and we sought shelter in a little cafe, off on one side of Union Square, right next to the ice rink.  We were very lucky as we headed inside before it really started pouring down and we managed to bag ourselves a seat, so we could take the weight off our hooves and boots, and enjoy a well-deserved glass of Soave, while waiting for the rain to stop.  Where we then enjoyed a beautifully surreal hour or so in the company of the delightful Dante, an Italian architect specializing in eco-design.  I can only imagine the text he sent to his wife enquiring after his whereabouts "I'll be home soon, dear, I'm just talking about the politics of sustainable architecture with a 6ft high plush reindeer").

Photo bomb, Reindeer-style!

Posing for our fans!

Reindeers love their Blackberrys....

MIB keeping Santa safe from the threat of alien invasion

Well, it wouldn't be SF if there weren't any
semi-naked transvestites now, would it?

Reindeer, available for summer work

Plush Lush

Hanging with Dante, the Italian architect

After a couple glasses of wine, things
started to get a little weird....

Anyway, he was a lovely chap, so it was fun hour or so spent talking with him, while we were sheltering out of the rain.  After a couple glasses of wine and the Sisterhood of the Traveling (Reindeer) Head had become well established, we decided food was probably a good idea.  Unfortunately, the rain wasn't showing any signs of stopping and I hadn't brought any corn for popping, so we decided to head to the nearest victuals establishment, The Cheesecake Factory in Macy's.  This place is notoriously busy but - as we entered into Macy's and headed over to the elevator that takes you up to the restaurant - I was encouraged by it not being thronged with as many people as usual.  Maybe folk had been deterred by the rain, I thought, as we squelched over.

Or maybe they were already inside the Cheesecake Factory, all waiting for their tables already, as we discovered there was a 1.5-2hr wait to be seated!  I did ask whether a Santa and accompanying reindeer could magically jump the line and get priority as we had lots of toys to deliver, but the hostess wasn't buying it, so off we set for the burger place, a couple of floors below.

Now here's where it gets really random.  Not sure whether this was by luck or by design, but on our way to find the burger place, we happened to find ourselves walking through Holiday Lane - the part of the store that they turn into a festive wonderland of retail opportunity.  As you would expect, it was jam packed with kids so, again, I got to practice my Disney-esque wave, smiling the whole time from underneath my big, floppy reindeer head (which is a bit redundant, if you think about it).  And thats when we happened upon a group of children singing carols.  Who just happened to have a spare stool sitting empty on the end.   And - before i had the chance to escape or utter (whinny?) any protestations - a singing teacher who, upon seeing a reindeer enter the building, ran over and grabbed me and sat me down and insisted I sing a carol with them.  And that's how I found myself, on a rainy Saturday afternoon, in the Holiday Lane at Macy's dressed full-on as a reindeer singing none other than - you guessed it - Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer with a bunch of very excited school kids!

Overwhelmed with emotion

After that, I definitely needed a sit-down and some food.  Alas the burger place was also jam-packed, so foiled, we exited Macy's back out into the rainy afternoon and - after a couple failed attempts at getting into a couple of bar/restaurants (apparently they were already full of Santas), we ended up in Lori's diner, a old-fashioned, red vinyl and black and white checkered place just round the corner from Union Square.  Where I promptly got completely molested by two young girls who were obviously very excited to see me as they wouldn't leave me alone!!  We had to stand and wait for a table for about 15 mins, during which time the kids kept stroking my fur and pummeling my furry tummy (hey!) and i was absolutely ROASTING hot!  But I feared that if I took my head off before they left the diner, that would have caused irrevocable psychological damage and they would permanently have stopped believing in the real-ness of 5'8" plus animals.  And I didnt want that on my conscience.  On the bright side, though, it was the first time i'd ever been on the receiving end of applause as we walked into a diner - obviously everyone was enjoying our costumes as much as the two girls were, though fortunately they managed to restrain themselves from handling The Goods.  One table even sent us over a drink each - which was nice.  And needed.

Finally.  An exhausted reindeer gets to spend
some quality alone time with the menu.

And after we were properly fed and watered, there was nothing left to do but to wend our way home, trying to avoid the biggest puddles (my reindeer feet had become nothing more than sodden sponges by this stage) and catch the MUNI back home.  We met a few friendly cops on the way, so posed for a picture (one refused to have his piccie taken, fearing it would appear in someone's Facebook post - ah, a sign of the times... but pretty astute thinking, i feel!) and finally got back on the MUNI for the short ride home and to rest and put my hooves up.   First ever Santacon - DONE!!  Bring on 2013!!

  

Boys in blue keeping the streets safe

And there are some walks you just need to take alone.....