The loosely-organized yearly celebration of public drunkenness known as SantaCon is back this Saturday, December 9th. Held in multiple cities and observed locally around Union Square as well as in North Beach and the Marina, SantaCon invites attendees to dress in Santa or other holiday costumes, bar hop, and generally behave as if the law were for other people.
SantaCon began in San Francisco in 1994 as a vaguely subversive stunt for the early Burning Man crowd. Since then, it’s grown massively in size, and now attracts Santa-clad twenty-somethings by the thousands. Rumors of its death a few years ago were, in the end, greatly exaggerated. With the added numbers and poorer behavior have come backlash, and plenty of bars ban “Santas” completely. But if you’re planning to get dressed up and attend, congratulations on recently moving to the Bay Area, and here are 13 bars and clubs that are actively inviting SantaCon revelers with drink specials and events. You might also bring, as the event officially but half-heartedly requests, an un-wrapped gift for the SantaCon toy drive, to be collected at Union Square. If, on the other hand, you’re planning to skip SantaCon altogether, here are 13 bars to avoid at all costs on that dreaded day. For more places to go to avoid the annual scourge, see Curbed’s recommendations.
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