Saturday was the busiest day of the year for Santas, apart from the up-coming evening of 24th December, of course. Across the world it is probably only slight hyperbole to claim millions of Santas met up for a pre-Christmas street party. Thousands of these red-suited fellows marched through London before partying at Langham Place.
Mass events on the streets of London have recently been protests, with chanting that has been quite fiery, both metaphorically and literally. The Flaneur has covered several of them and heard all the robust language. So it was very pleasant to hear a large crowd shouting a more genteel demand.
What do we want?
Christmas!
When do we want it?
Now!
The universal laws of time and motion mean they will be disappointed, but still they chanted, mixing in a few verses of Jingle Bells and other Christmas favourites as they went. Not everyone was dressed as Santa. There were a few Christmas trees, elves and even a few brave souls in Reindeer onesies.
This annual parade of Santas was part of Santacon, which – to quote their own literature – is ‘non-profit, non-religious and non-sensical’, a day spent handing out sweets, hugging strangers and generally spreading bonhomie. With such huge numbers the police were bound to turn up eventually, but when they did they only kept the revellers off the road and allowed the traffic to flow down to Oxford Circus, letting the merriment continue. The only downside was the quantity of empty/broken bottles and tins left around All Souls church. There was a team of Santas filling bin bags with detritus, but the sheer amount of rubbish was beyond their good intentions.
Everywhere you looked in the nearby streets there were Santas sitting outside pubs, eating at cafes and restaurants and wandering around looking for lavatories. It was an evening when if you weren’t wearing a Santa outfit you felt a bit silly, which isn’t something you can say very often.
A huge gathering of people, dancing, laughing and climbing phone boxes in varying degrees of drunkenness. All surrounded by a wall of policemen called over from football match duties – and yet no violence. Maybe the key to public order issues is for everyone to always dress as Santa. Or Rudolph. Or a Christmas tree.
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