Thousands dressed as Santa Claus, Grinch take part in annual New York pub crawl

Thousands of Kris Kringles and jolly Old St. Nicks are jamming streets, sidewalks and bars from Adelaide to Vancouver on Saturday for annual SantaCon charity pub crawls.

In New York City, where temperatures hovered around freezing, the fermented merriment kicked off around 10 am and was slated to stretch into the evening.

Santas – along with people dressed as Grinches, elves or other holiday characters – strolled to bars and clubs from midtown Manhattan to the East Village, flooding the streets with a crimson tide of Christmas cheer.

“The NYC SantaCon is a charitable, non-commercial, non-political, nonsensical Santa Claus convention that happens once a year to spread absurdist joy,” the organisers’ website explained.

SantaCon participants are encouraged to donate $15 to enter participating venues. Organisers say the money will go to charity.

Similar Christmas-themed booze fests were being held on Saturday in about 50 cities around the globe, including London, Phoenix, Winnipeg and San Francisco. Some places held their SantaCons on Friday, last weekend or late last month. More are scheduled throughout December.

New York City police posted reminders on social media that open containers are prohibited in the streets and that blocking pedestrian and car traffic can lead to a summons. They also encouraged people attending the event to have a designated driver.

Commuter rail lines in the region banned passengers from drinking on board.