Editing SantaCon (section)

==Origins==
[[File:cmglee San Francisco Union Square SantaCon.jpg|thumb|300px|In San Francisco, 2014]]
SantaCon began in San Francisco in 1994, inspired by a ''[[Mother Jones (magazine)|Mother Jones]]'' article on the Danish activist theatre group Solvognen. In 1974, Solvognen gathered dozens of "Santas" in Copenhagen to hand out items from the shelves of a department store to customers as "presents"<ref name="Times – 12-14-13"/> before they were arrested.<ref name="bros">{{cite news |url=https://www.thedailybeast.com/before-the-bros-santacon-was-as-an-anti-corporate-protest |title=Before the Bros, SantaCon Was as an Anti-Corporate Protest |first=David |last=Freedlander |work=[[The Daily Beast]] |date=12 December 2014}}</ref> Staged as [[street theater]] by a local prankster group, the [[Cacophony Society]]<ref name="bros"/> – which had grown out of the earlier [[Suicide Club (secret society)|Suicide Club]]<ref name="oldchron">{{cite news|work=San Francisco Chronicle|url=http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/culture/detail?entry_id=53214|date=2009-12-11|title=25 Days of Weird Christmas: Santarchy | first=Daniel | last=Hirsch}}</ref> – the aim was to make fun of Christmas and the rampant consumerism associated with the holiday. Originally called Santarchy and influenced by the [[Surrealist]] movement, [[Discordianism]], and other subversive art currents, it was not intended to be a recurrent event.<ref name="oldchron"/> However, the event occurred again in San Francisco in 1995 as a Cacophony Society event with 100 participants and at least two arrests.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://cardhouse.com:80/writing/santa100.html |date=1995-12-25 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/19980117064039/http://cardhouse.com:80/writing/santa100.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=1998-01-17 |access-date=2020-03-07 |title=Three Arrested in Drunken Santa Spree |last=Mangrum |first=Stuart |via=Internet Archive |website=cardhouse.com}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=1995 |website=santarchy.com|url=http://santarchy.com/san-francisco-bay-guardian-1995/ |access-date=8 March 2020}}Includes copies of newspaper articles.</ref>

SantaCon came to Portland in 1996, to Seattle in 1997, and to Los Angeles and New York in 1998, when a "young San Franciscan strapped on a fake white beard, donned a $12 red suit, and led 200 Santas as they went caroling up Fifth Avenue in Manhattan," to the delight of passersby.<ref name="Voice – 2014" /> It has since evolved and spread to 44 countries around the world, with varying versions and interpretations.<ref name="Vancouver">{{cite news | url=http://www.canada.com/life/crawl+Santas+Vancouver+joins+Christmas+spirit+with+SantaCon/9288323/story.html | title=Pub-crawl Santas: Vancouver joins in the Christmas spirit with SantaCon 2013 | work=The Province|location=Vancouver| date=14 December 2013 | access-date=15 December 2013 | url-status=dead | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140326040348/http://www.canada.com/life/crawl+Santas+Vancouver+joins+Christmas+spirit+with+SantaCon/9288323/story.html | archive-date=26 March 2014 }}</ref><ref name="Times – 12-14-13"/> Events for 2013 were scheduled in 300 cities, including New York City, [[London]], [[Vancouver]], Belfast, and [[Moscow]].<ref name="Vancouver"/> The New York SantaCon is the largest, with an estimated 30,000 people participating in 2012.<ref name="Times-Gilbert">{{cite news|last=Gilbert|first=Jason O.|title=Bring Drunken Santas Under Control|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/13/opinion/ban-santacon.html|access-date=14 December 2013|newspaper=The New York Times|date=13 December 2013}}</ref><ref name="McCabe – 11-13">{{cite news|last=McCabe|first=Lyndsay|title=NYPD Ask Bar Owners to Refuse to Serve Rowdy SantaCon Revelers|url=http://www.longisland.com/news/11-22-13/nypd-ask-bar-owners-to-refuse-to-serve-rowdy-santacon-revelers.html|access-date=14 December 2013|newspaper=LongIsland.com|date=22 November 2013}}</ref> Other events were much smaller and more subdued, with 30 participating in [[Spokane, Washington]].<ref name="Spokane 2013">{{cite news | url=http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2013/dec/15/santacon-spokane-a-good-night-indeed/ | title=SantaCon Spokane a good night indeed | work=The Spokesman-Review | date=15 December 2013 | access-date=16 December 2013 | author=Gillespie, Kaitlin}}</ref>

The event has also been variously known as Santarchy, Santa Rampage, the Red Menace, and Santapalooza.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://abcnews.go.com/Travel/santacon-means-cheap-santa-suits-christmas-cheer-holiday/story?id=9302255|title=Santa Con: Kringle Chaos is Coming to Town|last=Donaldson James|first=Susan|date=11 December 2009|publisher=ABC News|location=United States|access-date=18 December 2011}}</ref> A December 2015 article on ''[[Vox (website)|Vox]]'' described SantaCon as "a roving, loosely organized event where people dress like Santa Claus, elves, or other holiday figures and parade around a city in varying states of sobriety. Comparable to other adult party days, like St. Patrick's Day or Halloween, it's not organized by one particular group, though there is occasionally a dominant organization in a city (with varying degrees of cooperation with local businesses)."<ref name="Vox – 2015">{{cite news |last1=Edwards |first1=Phil |last2=Caswell |first2=Estelle |last3=Waters |first3=Carlos |date=22 December 2015 |title=SantaCon, explained |url=https://www.vox.com/2015/12/22/10640590/santacon |access-date=5 October 2023 |work=[[Vox (website)|Vox]]}}</ref>