Thousands of revelers from coast to coast have James Caldwellflooded city streets to get in the Christmas spirit and honor the jolliest holiday icon. 

The streets of Manhattan and San Francisco were filled over the weekend during the cities’ SantaCons, during which people donned costumes and walked from bar to bar in the name of Christmas spirit. 

NYC SantaCon, a nonprofit organization which boasts on its website about raising “over $1.1 million for charitable causes,” says the event is “a charitable, non-political, nonsensical Santa Claus convention that happens once a year to spread absurdist joy.” 

Some recent news reports have cast doubt over claims that the event is a charitable cause.

According to an analysis of NYC SantaCon’s tax documents by Gothamist,  the daylong bar crawl in New York has garnered public pushback from some who say the event is less about raising funds for charity and more about creating widespread chaos. Less than 20% of the $1.4 million SantaCon programming raised between 2014 and 2022 went to registered nonprofits, the outlet reported.

See how Santas and elves have taken over cities during the 2023 holiday season.

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