Photos, Videos: The Worst Of NYC SantaCon 2018

Dec. 10, 2018, 9:40 a.m.

The official motto should become: 'We Haven't Done Anything But Wake Up And Drink.'

Over the last two decades, NYC has slowly turned into a playground for the rich—but for one very special day of the year, it transforms into a playground for the drunk. SantaCon swept into town on Saturday, leaving a trail of spilled beer, abandoned Santa hats, and candy cane colored upchuck across Midtown and the East Village.

There are of course plenty of Long Islanders and NJ residents who just want an excuse to have a fun day out with their friends, and organizers have taken pains to snuff out the worst behavior from participants... but there are the people, like the gentleman below, who are just obliterated. If you want to see one SantaCon video that summarizes what it's all about, here you go:

Charitable contributions aside, there is no culture or purpose to SantaCon other than binge drinking (and perhaps reliving fraternity days of yore). The first step to making SantaCon tolerable to the rest of New York is admitting that, letting go of the defensiveness, and then maybe erecting an electric fence around Murray Hill and letting participants roam free without worrying about anyone shouting "MAKE AMERICA SANTA AGAIN" at innocent passersby.

Despite alcohol being banned on all Metro North, LIRR and NJ Transit trains for the day, plenty of people got started nice and early Saturday morning. "We haven’t done anything but wake up and drink," one person admitted to the NY Post, inadvertently coining the official motto for the event.

Who wouldn't feel a sense of community when faced with the testosterone-rich scene below? As one person wrote on Twitter, "it’s like if Burning Man was sponsored by Axe Body Spray."

By the middle of the day, things had already taken a turn, as the ceremonial fighting and barfing had commenced:

As commenter TimSPC mused a couple years back: "I wonder if the charitable veneer gives the participant a licence [sic] to act even worse. Like, 'this is for charity, I'll pee where I want to!'" For the people looking to score a Darwin Award, it certainly seems to be true:

There was more general bad behavior throughout the day:

This is the first year I can recall that celebrities and politicians all started to come out very vocally against SantaCon. When you've lost Zach Braff, you've lost the popular vote:

Okay, there was one celeb who was able to get into the spirit of things:

Okay, make that two celebrities, if you count William Hung as a celebrity:

Altogether, the NYPD says there were over 50 summonses given out (including at least 41 OATH summonses and 9 criminal court summonses issued) throughout the day, which is certainly an improvement on the 100+ summonses for disorderly conduct given out in 2016. There were also two arrests made, including Antonio Smith, 38, who was charged with assault for punching a 24-year-old woman in the face.

As you can imagine, there were many faces of regret:

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Merry #santaconnyc !

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I will give celebrants this: the Grinch who dedicated his or her day to driving around town in an open-air Polaris Slingshot blasting Christmas music did bring a bit of cheer.

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SantCon 2018 NYC (sound on) #santaconnyc #santacon

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Nobody better summarized the event than Alex: "We've been out here for days. It's been...not fun, but like not bad. It's been enough to make us like, question whether it's worth it, but it's been enough."

This feels like a fitting final photo:

Click here for more photos of Santacon 2018.