What is Santarchy? It's an opportunity to spend most of a day and night in costume having outrageous fun, drinking heavily, celebrating the holidays, celebrating our rights as Americans to dress up and act silly, spreading love and good-will among our fellow citizens... and being naughty. Why? Because EVERYBODY LOVES SANTA!! Nothing puts a smile on someone's face the way a pack of marauding Santa's does. All that, and you get to decide if people are naughty or nice -- what more do you want?!?

If the thought of dressing up as a jolly fat person scares you, there is a tradition of varying the Santa costume to fit your personality: Santa Claws, Santa Garcia, Saint Nic-o-tine, Pimp-Santa, Satan Claus, Santa-Ho, Labor-activist Elf, etc. Santas in need of proper attire are referred to www.partycity.com for the location of the nearest store -- I hear Wal-mart has some too, or make your own.

If you need further inspiration, check out stories and pictures at www.santarchy.com.

See Keith Engle's pictures from DC in 2000, Matthew Braun's pictures from 2001 and my pictures from Baltimore 2001.

Next Santarchy in Washington, DC is on December 7, 2002. The Playa del Fuego Geeklog has more information and an itinerary.

Here are my brand new pictures from Santarchy DC in 2002. Read the Washington Post article by Ylan Quy Mui titled You Better Watch Out! Especially When the Hordes of Marauding Santas Come to Town published on December 15, 2002.

Dustin Smith writes:

Picked up an early edition of Sunday's Washington Post and it has the Santarchy article in it. Pretty long with about 6 different pictures. I think she captured the balance of fun, art, and stupidity fairly well. My favorite quote: "'Santa needs some sophisticated adult entertainment', one of the Santas said before they stormed a strip club nearby."

New York crew's new santacon.com site is online. For those of you that were unable to attend SANTACON in NYC and do not subscribe to the New York discussion list, here's a site containing everyone's pictures. Thanks to Taco Boy for the link.

Metafilter is carrying the WaPo story and comments. Thanks to Chip Rosenthal for posting the article and Craig Pfeifer for his link. Hoping for more links soon!

Update: An article link from Al Sessions.

• Getting rowdy – all for a good Claus in the Seattle Union Record by Marc Ramirez. Thanks to Edward Burns for the link.
• Santa Rampage in Austin thanks to Doug Baker for the link.

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