The 3rd Annual Santa Pub Crawl
Last night was a Very Merry night in Buffalo. Just under 30 Santa Clauses congregated at Coles (very appropriate) to watch the Sabres win in OT. Yes, Buffalo has a Santa Claus Chapter, and each year this group of guys goes from bar to bar spreading good cheer while downing Molson Canadians. They were truly a sight to behold as they attempted to sing Christmas carols - it was a good thing that the game was on last night to rally the band of Santas to unite in some sort of vocal unison.
This was the third year that the group came together to raise money for a local charity. Each Santa throws in a chunk of change before the night even starts. From there they travel from bar to bar while drinking for free and collecting more money for the charity of choice. A limo bus is the preferred form of transportation for the evening... this allows the Santas to partake in as much 'spirits' of the holiday as they like. The men in red come from all over Western New York and after talking to many of them I realized that their occupations (other than being Santa) varied greatly as well. There were former professional sport figures, teachers, lawyers, professionals and doctors... all of whom enjoyed a few good toasts to the season.
At one point in the evening I was introduced to Jeff, the Head Santa, who expressed to me how the event came about. "I was talking to some friends and family a few years back and the topic of the Santa Pub Crawl came up. Before we knew it I had friends in NY and a couple other cities who were in on the action and of course Buffalo needed its own chapter, so we went out and got Molson to sponsor the event and bars to host it. This is our third year and we've been trying to keep it a tight-knit group. This could be the last year that we hold back on the numbers. I think that a lot of people want to join in the fun... and the bigger it gets, the more we raise for charity. The charity of choice does not even know that we are raising the money for their cause... we just show up at their door with a check in hand and surprise the 'heck' out of them!"
I told Jeff about the Santa Skate downtown and he said that he would tell all the guys about it. Seeing a group of Santas give a cheer and toast together is a sight to behold and really gets the holiday spirit going.
ugh how come I didn't heard about this before hand! what fun :p
Hey BR Team - Thanks so much for the great write-up and taking the time to spend with our team of Santa's! the evening was fantastic and could not start it off anywhere else but at Cole's! Your article has been circulating the globe by now as many friends keep passing it on! Thanks again and cannot wait to see you at the Santa Skate! JP
Dang--30 guys in Santa suits and I had to be out of town! I have only two suggestions: give us humor-starved BRO regulars some advance notice next time, and learn the Macarena or Hustle or something similar. I will fork over good dead presidents to see 30 Santas line dancing.