Beer belly.

Elegant costume.

Satan’s camel toe.

Lots of Santas, but watch the video to get a real idea of how massive this convergence in the park was.

Early on someone tried to climb the fountain.

Cheap but effective costume.

What is this, it does look familiar.

Santas strolling.

Mirror shades.

Hung by the chimney with care.

I started out with the multitude of Santas in Greenpoint, inside and outside the Warsaw bar on Driggs Avenue.

The trip from Warsaw to McCarren Park enhanced by music from the tuba duo you can see in the next video. I doubled the tubas for extra background zing, my apologies to the artists.

Traveling between McCarren Park and Brooklyn Bowl a snowball fight erupts.

Tubas and dance beats at Brooklyn Bowl on Wythe Avenue in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. And then on to who knows where.

The Santas subway to Manhattan singing all the way. Too late for financial district hi-jinx the Santas go down again and head uptown to the West Village.

The Santas in Washington Square Park in the West Village. This is as far as I went. I didn’t make it to Times Square, which looks to have been huge.

1/8/09: I can’t figure out why this post is getting so many hits. Leave a comment if you know.

This is the Santa pole that so many Elves and Santas admired. It is obviously less exciting up close.

I took a bit more care giving my lightweight monopod the ability to tilt. But this quickly made version was just as functional. Use 1/4-20 bolts with machine threading (a very common size in the US). The wood is 5/8" thick, which let me bend the plumber’s strap and align the holes just right. The washer under the wingnut helps with smoother operation. The two nuts on the same bolt will lock against each other, and keep the bolt from spinning. the washers on the bolt space the depth the screw goes into the camera. You may have to play around with it a bit to get your camera pointed straight forward.

I was surprised at how steady an image a pocket camera on the end of a pole can provide. I suspect the length of the pole somehow dampens the handheld jitters. I did have to guess at what the camera was seeing, so this is less than ideal. But for crowd events having the ability to go smoothly from eye level to ten feet up is pretty cool.

gammablog.com/2008/12/14/santacon-nyc-2008/

I’m not sure why a tilt mechanism is not standard on all monopods. It increases the functionality tremendously. You can buy heads for your monopod, but they increase the minimum length by a couple of inches. This mod kept it the same length it was. Without being able to tilt the camera, I couldn’t have looked down on the Santas without holding the pole awkwardly.

I regard Santacon and other roving gatherings as street art, people expressing themselves in public. I was torn between capturing the event on video and dancing down the street. This year I pretty much sacrificed the dancing for the capturing. Maybe next year I’ll attach my camera to a Santa helmet and just go for it. Though if I wasn’t having fun shoving my striped pole in the air like a crane, I would have put the camera away, had a drink or two, and joined the dance.

Bill Cunningham in the New York Times stumbled upon the event and has an audio slideshow. He was greatly amused.

Part 1 finds the Santas in midtown completely covering the steps of the General Post Office on Eighth Avenue,
and then traipsing over to Grand Central Terminal.

Full Screen (Link to YouTube, click play in high quality and then hit the full screen button on the player)

Santacon NYC 2008 Part 1 from GammaBlog on Vimeo.

Part 2 takes the Santas from Rockefeller Center, to the South Street Seaport, and the Staten Island Ferry.

Full Screen (Link to YouTube, click play in high quality and then hit the full screen button on the player)

Santacon NYC – 2008 – Pt. 2 from GammaBlog on Vimeo.

The pedal-powered stripper pole at the South Street Seaport. I mostly shot video during this year’s massive NYC Santacon. I have eight and a half gigs of it to edit into something worth showing.

Warning if you go to Santacon dressed as a panda, you will likely get whacked in the head with a candy cane by feisty girls!

Santa and the Aviator Angel.

Spirit of Christmas Past

Patriotic Reindeer

Happy birthday Jesus.

Part 2 in Tompkins Square Park: Scary Santas, Blue-Xmas Santas, Reindeer Games (Slingshot shaving cream balloons in Tompkins Park), Santa Capoeira (agile Afro-Brazilian martial-arts dance moves in silly costumes), Super hoopers (I have another video of the first hooper from the Dance Parade earlier this year. If anyone wants to identify themselves from the photos or video let me know. Scroll to the bottom of the blog for email, or make a comment.
Santa Beer Nipple and the Enabler Elf.
Santa Afro Bling

Santa Sunglasses

Santa Slinger

Santa Hooper

Santa Grab My Pole

Business Elf

Unsilent Santas 2002
SantaCon NYC 2003
SantaCon NYC 2004
Santa Stumble 2005