The 4th stop of the West Palm Beach Santacon was at O'Shea's Irish Pub on Clematis St. We broke off from the group after O'Shea's, but a few of the brave Santas kept spreading holiday cheer late into the night.

The first Santa Convention, or "SantaCon" for short, was organized in 1994 by the Cacophony Society (public pranksters) of San Francisco. Since then other similarly themed events have sprung up across the world such as Santarchy, Santa Rampage, Santapalooza, Cheapsuit Santas, Santaoke, and Naughty Santas.

The vast majority of Santa Convention attendees wear the traditional red Santa Claus suit but some of the other costumes that are common include Mrs. Claus, Rudolph the Reindeer, Elves, and Snow Princesses. A few of the more creative variations on the traditional Santa costume have mixed in other themes such as zombies, Harley Davidson bikers, Rastafarians, pirates, Elvis, Jewish, Mexican, Luchador wrestler, punk rockers, and cowboys.

Since the first event in 1996, Santacon has spread around the world to places like Antarctica, Moscow, Munich, London, Tokyo, Paris, Thailand, Sweden, Cambodia, Australia, Mexico City, Canada, and New Zealand. There was even a Santacon that was took place in the "Second Life" virtual internet world for people who couldn't make it to a real life convention.

If this type of gathering seems like a good time to you, be sure to join one of the 100's of Santacons that will be taking place in December 2008. They can be found in almost every major city across the USA including New York, Austin, Chicago, Detroit, Phoenix, Washington DC, Baltimore, San Diego, Orlando, Tampa, Miami, Boulder, Tulsa, Houston, Los Angeles, and Sacramento.