It’s the most wonderful time of the year, with the kids jingle bell-ing and everyone telling you to…watch out for the roving pack of Santas? Yep, it’s time for another Santacon, folks. An annual tradition, Santacon is a holiday-themed emergent phenomenon lying somewhere between a crowd-sourced happening and a hilarious costumed pub crawl. Ever since one fateful night in San Francisco in 1994, the Santarchy spread like wildfire, and Santacons have popped up in urban areas all over the world (including Beijing and Vienna) to the delight/bewilderment of the unsuspecting holiday shopper.

Here in Portland, Santacon continues to break off into splinter groups who ‘organize’ their own merry events. For this reason, Portland can boast not one but (at least) three Santacons this year, some of which have already occured. Were you one of over 200 Santas who dropped in on Mayor Sam Adams on the 5th? Check out the pic.

Santas, as well as little helpers, elves, reindeer, and miscellaneous holiday personalities will be converging for the Official PDX Santacon at noon on Saturday, December 19th. You are invited, too, provided you are in appropriate Santa gear. There’s a lot of trickery, naughtiness, and general misinformation out there, folks. Skip the spam and go directly to Portland Cacophony Society for the details on where to meet up (NOT Skidmore Fountain this year as Santa had some legal issues with that), along with some general Santa dos-and-don’ts, tips for how Santa can pace him or herself, etc.

You better watch out…ho ho ho ho ho ho ho….