Bittersweet Infamy - #87 - SantaCon is Coming to Town

Episode Date: December 17, 2023

Holiday special! Josie tells Taylor about the anarchic origins of the rowdy annual Santa celebration, SantaCon. Plus: on Christmas Day 1914, a heartwarming moment of peace emerges from the icy trenches of war.

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visit connectsontario.ca Welcome to Bitter Sweden. I'm Taylor Vaso. And I'm Josie Mitchell. On this podcast, we share the stories that live Stranger in the Familiar. The tragic, the comic. The bitter, and the sweet. To all of our listeners, happy holidays, whatever you celebrate, you might hear us say Christmas a lot because I, I mean myself, I celebrate Christmas, but whatever you're celebrating, if you're celebrating, then I wish you good spirit, and if you're not celebrating,

then I'll leave you the fuck alone. Welcome. Yeah, just take a chill pill, enjoy. Read a book or don't. Who am I? I'm not your boss. I've already addressed you too much. I said I was going to leave you the fuck alone, and then I immediately overstepped again.

Mm, that happens. But I worry about you. I just want to make sure that you're warming cozy in this beautiful mid-December snow escape that the Northern Hem hemisphere at least enjoys. Is it snowing in Vancouver or snow on the ground? No, lots of rain. We just had a how you say atmospheric river. Oh! Did it have a name?

It's actually, it had a first name in the last name. It's first name was Matt and its last name was Mesphoric. Yeah, that's good. That's good. Damn dude. Thanks. Vancouver weather should hire you. They don't return my letters anymore.

They said too many they said we can't keep up. Uh-huh. I'm so sorry. Uh, what? Tis the season. Tis the season. Tis the season. Good night folks.

Did we have something else that we needed to talk about? The mix tape. The Christmas mix tape. The Christmas mix tape. There's gonna be lots of good things on the Christmas mix tape. It's gonna be full of jokes. We're young dumb and full of jokes here.

Better suited for me. It's true. Less young and hopefully younger by the day. Less dumb, hopefully too. But no less full of jokes. The mixtape has in it the origins of a bunch of bits that have found their way onto the show, but whose origin must be so mysterious to long-time listeners because they are, they originate from segments that were cut from the show. I believe this

mixtape has origins of robot Taylor and robot Josie. This mixtape has the origins of why we always sing the cantina music from star track anytime we talk about the 20s. So there's gonna be I really recommend tuning in to the bitter sweet mixtape part two and that of course drops when Josie Chris mess is Christmas day Mr. Wake up in the morning That's what you can expect more imagine the shit that we don't leave in That's what you can expect more. Imagine the shit that we don't leave it. Imagine what doesn't make the cut.

That's what you can look forward to. Um, and not only are we dropping the bitter sweet mixtape for free to anybody who wants to listen to it on our coffee account, KO-Hip and Fi.com slash bitter sweeten for me on Christmas Day. Just because we like to give you something on Christmas day not only that but today December 17th you can go to our coffee account KO hyphen fi dot com slash bitter sweet infamy and access the bitter sweet mixtape part one is from last year it was our Christmas exclusive to subscribers pay us any amount of money

thing yeah this year we're like to do like, let's just drop that for free. We can drop the mixtape part two for free and then we'll resume Bittersweet Film Club in January with Heavenly Creatures. It's gonna be really exciting. Yeah, yeah. And if you're new to all of this, thecoffee.com is a site that's built to help organizations and artistic practices get a little tip money here and there. So that's all that we're asking you log into coffee.com slash bittersweetimphamy.co.fi.com slash bittersweetimphamy and you just become a monthly subscriber. You're just a few bucka roos. And you get all these rad-ass exclusives that now you'll know a little bit more about

because we've got some free mix tapes up there for you. Yeah, so I'll come together. Do you like the holiday season? Yes, I do. Is it a favorite of yours? Do you perk up for it? I like it. I like it for what it is. I perhaps a contribution for the holiday season. Yeah, yes I do. Is it a favorite of yours? Do you perk up for it?

I like it. I perk down. I like it for what it is. I perhaps a controversial take. I feel like I could use Christmas or a Christmas event to happen early in the new year, rather late in the current year. It's a nice way to, because I feel like we already have new years there, right?

I'm not so, we just had Halloween. I'm not yet so miserable in destitute from the sorrow and darkness and cold in the way that I will be from all of January to March. Right. That's what I think. Yeah. Or, but that could just be as easy as like adding a new holiday. Yeah.

Which I'm open to all kinds of conversations about the content of that holiday and how we celebrate it. Cozy, I would say. I would like a cozy holiday. There's this Danish word that I'm probably getting wrong and yeah, I was gonna say I don't know, I'm just calling it. You might be right. But I do love that atmosphere. That's very nice. I do like a very crunchy snowbound kind of a zoo cozy cozy inside Oh

Oh Just a little a little snow capped peak of the holiday season. We're gonna have a new year's Eve Yeah, that's so fun. I'm so excited. I'm so excited. I'm on the I'm on the tables for that one Yeah, I think it's gonna be Taylor's gonna tell us a doozy. I'm gonna the tables for that one. I think it's gonna be... Taylor's gonna tell us a doozy. I'm gonna tell you a doozy and a new-us-themed doozy and then we're we can all just happily glide into the new year together on a wave of him for me. He's really glide on a wave I guess. On a sheen of him, he's a patina of him for me. You can surf into the new year. That's true. That's true.

We can do that. We can do that. Agatha Christie style. Yeah, that was true. So, someone asked me, no, I asked somebody, because these are the types of questions I asked people. I was like, what's the last thing you learned that genuinely surprised you?

And they told me whatever, I don't remember what they said. And they asked for my response. And I I actually I hadn't thought about it in advance I was like oh yeah I have thought about it. You know you know I didn't know this but apparently Agatha Christie was the first British woman to stand up on a surfboard I was genuinely shocked by that so beautiful it's beautiful. The things you learned when you listen to podcasts. And on that note, we're here in infamous. I'd like to open a very small, early Christmas present in the form of an infamous. And we can do that. And we can do that.

Like any small regalito, gift little gift guy. Why am I just... giftito? giftito? As is it? giftito? Like any small gift of note, this one begins with an assassination. In July 1914, Serbian Archduke, France, Ferdinand was assassinated, triggering a series of diplomatic packs that pitted nation against nation in a series of battles. Triggering? I didn't mean it that way, but yes, you have very that trigger warning. You're about to get assassinated, sorry sir.

This triggered a series of diplomatic packs that pitted nation against nation in a series of battles collectively known as World War One. Okay, I slowed just as you picked up, it was a way off there. Joseph, tell me about what do you think of this as a broad topic? What are your associations with World War One? Dads. What? Dad's what?

It's just like a general like dad topic. Wow. It's like you don't know what to get a dad for Christmas get them a book on World War one or two you think you think Yeah, this is interesting. Yeah, so Josie's father died when she was very young right so second hand. I'm not trying to be a dick, but my next question, obviously the question, the first thing one thinks of is, oh, Josie must have gotten her dad a lot of gifts to do with World War I, but... Like an uncle, like a...

Merry Christmas, by the way. Father in law, you know? A dad, one's dad. I've heard about dad, so good. I'm sure, let's do it. Could you perhaps give me some references that are not dads that are maybe something more to do with the war itself? World War I specifically.

It was known for trench warfare. There was a lot of these dugout trenches that soldiers would fight from, uh, extremely bloody type of warfare. The helmets, you can always like tell from a movie or a photograph what war it is because the, I don't know, I don't know if it's all the helmets, but there's a helmet. They did wear helmets. It has a little brim, it has a little brim. And then the the the Germans wore pickle halbs that had the little spike on top in World War One. That was that was their like World War One player one gear. There's the Christmas day truce. Never heard of it. Carry on. World War One. I can actually I can take it from there.

Never heard of it carry on world war Why I can't see I can take it from there the thing that you said about trip it being known for trenches is really material to me I guess because I was a boy and they would be talking about like the story of Conscription and how young men in Canada came to be conscripted to the war. Oh, yeah, the poppies Flanders, you know the poppies blow the between the crosses row and around right on flander's fields I should say don't don't get me kicked out in my fucking country here now. But there's a lot of mythology around war and particularly around World War One which is the generation of a lot of our iconography in our mythology because it was like a it was a it was a real big first national test for Canada's at work. Because we learned about that in that way, and I was like a young man,

and we were talking about like, you get drafted basically. And I feel the same thing in conversations around the Vietnam War and other kind of wars of mandatory conscription. I feel very there, but for the grace of God, and I would do a lot of like putting myself in the shoes of like these people who had to be in these shitty trenches,

getting trench foot and inhaling mustard gas and being disabled for the rest of their lives, and not really having an understanding that that is what they were getting into. Yeah. So I have a lot of like empathy for what people have gone through, I guess, in the name of war. What is trenchinchfoot? I'm gonna go. I have a pair of clogs that I wear almost every day to work. And Amanda always says like, I used to have a pair of clogs when I worked at this restaurant,

but then I got Trinchfoot and had to throw them away. No, that's real clogs. Give you Trinchfoot. Trinchfoot. Trinchfoot is usually is caused by prolonged exposure to a cold temperature that is usually above freezing and damp, sometimes unsanitary conditions. It's like it's skin and tissue breakdown because somewhere something of sweaty cold damp, rub, rub, rub, tender, break, infection. That's trench book. Yeah, like a wet frostbite

signature. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's according to, by the way, what I just quoted was the National Institutes of health of US. I think you say national institute of trench foot. The national institute of trench foot, which I don't, I don't like all this joking that we're doing about trench foot because I take trench foot very seriously. Sounds very rough. I, they're a bit for the grace. I often think that the, the two times that I would be very unhappy to be a man would be like World War One and having to be in trenches and the number two is the Titanic. So really like the 1910s, very hiddenness. So including everything that we kind of just discussed, World War One is also at the center of one of the most well-known and enduring stories of Christmas spirit.

It is often said by Josie among others. On Christmas day of 1914, moved by the spirit of the season, the British and German armies not only agreed not to fire upon one another, but they came together as brothers, sharing drinks and stories and even playing a game of football in the middle of No Man's Land. As they baseball as they call it in Europe. This is a story that has been endlessly dramatized and seems to hold a particularly sentimental place in the Great British Christmas Pantheon, a glimmer of humanity and a bleak and devastating war. In no man's land, which no man's land is, well we'll get to it, but equally the story is so sentimental that many, then and now, have wondered,

did these events even occur? And if so, how? Josie, let me tell you the story of the Christmas truth of 1914. So, quick disclaimers, number one, I'm gonna do a lot of referring to Germany and Britain here, as though there are only two nations participating in this war, which, of course, there's not. And as though those were their, like, legal, accurate government names at the time, which they are not, apologies if I say UK at any point or England or misbeak, there would have been French soldiers tied up in this. There would have been, you know, etc. But for simplicity's sake,

and I think the way that the stories often retold. For Christmas sake. For Christmas sake, who has done more for Christmas than the Germans, right? Like, whatever you want to say about them in World's World Wars 1 and 2, they're coming around for their baby face turn in World War 3 though, bank it. Oh, okay. Okay, you heard it here first.

You heard it here first, Germany here is a World War 3. So yes, put it briefly, that's a very simplified way that I'm telling it. Yeah. And then the second thing is that the information that I've gathered comes from the Imperial War Museums, which is established in the immediate aftermath of the war, I think 1917, originally as to preserve and archive in London, England,

the ephemera and documents and artifacts of war, specifically World War One, but it's since expanded its mandate and now it's just every war, World War One and every war since. Gotcha, okay, yeah. And they have a lot of cool archival interviews with people, with relevant people, etc. And, and happily, I think that like World War I veterans beginning to die was one of those rare things where we were like, Oh shit, we better start trying to document this history. And especially now that we have like recording technology more accessible.

And so people kind of have, which is good. Yeah. That's why. Our infamous begins with the war itself in 1914 as the governments of Great Britain and Germany psych up their respective populations to fight each other to the death. How do they do this naturally through propaganda and hollow promises?

Delicious. Delicious propaganda. For example, in Britain, falsar exaggerated atrocities were perpetuated by the press depicting the Germans as barbaric rapists. The, oh, and more, baby eaters, devil worshipers, the law, right? The classics, all the hits. The German government, meanwhile, at the same time, publishes the German white book,

which is full of documents that place the blame for the war on other nations. It's them being like, here's our evidence that we're in the right here. Oh, here's our good avid jail free card. Mm-hmm. However, objection, a later analysis shows that 75% of these documents were fabricated. Thus does each nation whip its citizens up into a patriotic fervor and point them against hated inhuman foes in what is assured to be a guaranteed victory. And as for hollow promises, the big line in Britain is, don't worry, it'll be over by Christmas.

Just a short-lived, jingoist-dick trauma. We've got like four months of combat. And you don't even know at this point that it's trench combat mind you. You think that like, you have whatever. I never know how bad it's like. Not even idea you have of what armed combat looks like based on whatever your circumstances were.

And if you grew up with war, right? Yeah. And no, it come to find out in December that it is not over by Christmas, not at all, back in not anywhere close. We got like three more Christmas's to go and yeah. And then another world war after that. Let's take these one at a time. Okay. Okay. Okay. Don't get let's let's let's let's we we haven't even we're still in the trenches here. Jesus. Uh-huh. We still need like, ointment for our feet.

To suddenly slam to a much more jarring tone, uh, back home in the UK, the first lists of deaths have been published in the papers, and nationalist spirit has been tempered with grief. And while some in the military enjoy the holiday season with special meals, parties, and performances, whether it's because of position, connection or because they're laid up in a hospital room decorated with colored paper by the nurses, others are not as fortunate. Sparrow thought, for those young men who on Christmas Day 1914 are assigned to duty in

the muddy, wet, frostbitten trenches on the western front, the border between France and the West and Germany and Belgium and the East. These young men only have their camaraderie and their Christmas gift from Princess Mary, a pack of cigarettes and a poach of tobacco to console them. Which I like because it's very like giving someone mashed potatoes and French fries, which I'm all about. Right, yeah. Since it's very like here's your... Is it a balanced meal? Yeah. Maybe not. Rolled and unrolled tobacco.

What work could you need? Yeah. Thankfully, despite the hardship of the season and perhaps because of its weight at the time that we were all supposed to be done here, Christmas has made everyone sentimental, even between the warring sides. Because the trenches are 30 feet from one another, they're within ear shot of one another, and because of this acoustic feature, it is common for the two sides to

exchange yelled conversation. Which that's kind of, I didn't know that, that's kind of intense. Yeah, yeah. At first, it was typically hostile, insults and abuse, as you might expect, from soldiers on warring sides. That it became practical, a way to establish temporary ceasefires in order to give both sides needed time to rest, repair trenches, and bury their dead. Do you happen to have any grape upon? Is that kind of a...

I don't know how much gravity you're treating this with. I'm sorry, okay. A mustard joke is what you went with. You know, World War I story you went with a mustard joke. Oop, see. Sorry. What's it called? You're like morally impoverished.

I hope you know that. I like that. Wait, what's it called? What's it called? Oh yeah, you're a horrible person. And come Christmas time. It's now snatches of holiday carols and rum fueled revelry and says soldier and again I am going to respectfully request that you treat this with the gravity that that it deserves. Yes, yes according to soldier

Marmaduke Walkanton of the London Regiment. Thank you for your service on Christmas Eve we'd been singing carols and this that and the other and the Germans had been doing just the same and we'd been shouting to each other sometimes rude remarks more often just joking remarks. Eventually a German said tomorrow you know shoot we know shoot and so it was that on that Christmas day the two sides emerged from their trenches and met in the middle to exchange gifts as the legends say, soldiers from both sides post for photographs together in the middle of No Man's land and to loot back to what you were saying. You're very astute and intellectual point that you were making about how they had helmets in World War One. Thank you. In this image, it looks, but for the headgear, it looks like a photo

of like five friends just chilling on a field. Like they're just like standing there looking at the camera. Oh, yeah, yeah. And if you don't look at, if you either don't look at their berets and their pickle halbs and their like World War One specific enemy side's gear, or if you didn't know the context behind this headwear, you would have known nothing of the animosity between these men, or the fact that the area that they were standing in no man's land, the area between the trenches, was renowned for being the place that

you got like a mortar shell to death because you were exposed between trenches. Yeah, yeah, that that mud had seen a lot of... blood. Yeah, a lot of blood. So it's a really it's a really remarkable thing that happens and yes It seems that the legendary game of football did even take place according to Ernie Williams of the sixth battalion of the Cheshire Regiment Okay, although with one ball and nearly a hundred guys. It's more of a pickup game than a tournament rules of fair although with one ball and nearly a hundred guys it's more of a pickup game than a tournament rules of fair. Uh-huh, fair enough. And the truth itself isn't perfect. Every trench has its own information ecosystem that can be separate from the other so not everyone gets

the message leading to some awkward moments of breaking the truth with a little bit of machine-guide and fire. You know, World War One things. But apparently the Germans just kind of were like who the fuck are these knobs? Why should we have troops and then they just kind of went back to partying so no no no foul of it only Okay, okay, but well at least in that one instance that we heard about but broadly it's a day of good spirit Which spills over into boxing day, but not the day after the higher ups come down hard with strict rules about fraternizing with the enemy. Oh.

It turns out that when you're trying to convince people that the other side of a war is exclusively comprised of heartless monsters, it does you know ways to allow them to meet and build empathy for one another. It's a PR nightmare. It's a PR. You can't go out and be like exchanging huggies and like realizing that you have things in common because then you won't want to kill each other Right. Yeah, and the whole war machine will grind to a halt Can't have that

As the war wow. Yeah, no, it's they put a stamp down on it pretty quick apparently Yeah, stories of similar things happening Become much less after then prior to that. As I said, there's this idea that this truce is a very singular thing that was just like inspired out of thin air by Christmas spirit, but really prior to this, there had been like the occasional ceasefires and truces while people tended to their dead and their business, but that sort of thing apparently really tailed off after this incident, especially because like as the war resumes on the front, news of the Christmas tree reaches the home front via letters from the battlefield.

Oh, it doesn't get censored out. I guess they hadn't thought of that yet or something. The queen wouldn't censor her subjects male. And I'm like, who says who? Come on, yes you would. Yeah. Give you some tobacco while she did it but right yeah rolled and rolled and under rose dealers choice baby pick your poison one's British soldier named John wetterburn Maxwell describes how his dad was just like so intrigued by the story that he immediately leaked it to a newspaper and all of his superiors like assumed that it was him who had written it to the fucking and came down on his ass. So dad, classics, it's true, you did say, you did predict that.

There is an article in the Daily Mail from December 31, 1914 and it says Christmas truce at front, snowballs and jokes with the foe. Friendly chinwag with the Germans. Can any of you chaps mend a gramophone? So there's very like, they've really gathered all of these letters from home and printed the most, yeah, the most, no, it's, you hate to say juicy, but like juicy as stories go where you're like playing football in no man's land. I never thought I'd see the day. It's very that. It's very that.

The news real world. Yeah. World news. Yeah. The IWM, the International War Museums reports that the media of both countries seem to have handled, both countries being Germany and England, UK, Great Britain, et cetera, seem to have handled the story

in similar ways, says head of documents and sound, Anthony Richards. At the beginning of 1915, says head of documents and sound, Anthony Richards. At the beginning of 1915, the newspaper suddenly started printing these letters and to begin with, there was a certain amount of disbelief, but then over time, suddenly, photographs started to appear as well. By that time, evidence was clear that this did happen

and it wasn't a myth, and the media at the time absolutely loved it. There were lots of discussions in the newspapers about whether this was a good thing or a bad thing. And you know in a way it's a wonderful snapshot of Christmas in 1914 when attitudes were still slightly naive because the war had only really just begun. You find that in 1915 and onwards the war becomes almost a much more serious endeavor. You never get anything like the Christmas truth happening again and over time not only as it's seen as an anomaly but almost as a myth and it gets to the point where people are actually doubting whether it happened

in the first place which continues right up to this day. The story in all its contradictions remains a key part of the holiday admin calendar. As Richard's alludes, the Christmas time stories from rank and field soldiers in 1915 to 17 seem to be considerably more bleak as documented by the IWMI highly recommend their article Voices of of the First World War, Christmas at War, which contains a lot of first-hand accounts of eating frozen canned bully beef, which after a cursory Google sounds just awful, as well as some account. Wait, what does bully beef? It's like corned beef held together with gelatin from a can. Yeah. And they also gave some accounts of canned Christmas pudding,

which I feel like it could go either way. Really dependency. You never know. And on that note, I wish you only the finest of canned puddings to complement your holiday season, your holiday drink of choice. Thank you. And I affirm that I am grateful that I haven't been acquainted with war in my lifetime.

And I hope that you too, listening at home, are warm and grateful and enjoying a break from the trenches. Yeah, maybe. That is really fascinating that to think about it in the larger context of the war, that it could only happen at this very beginning stage when people still felt like, well, this will be over soon. Let's just take a break.

You know, like... Yeah, and it was a real low-point in like... That's wild. A German soldier in one of the articles that'll show down in the Uncredits mentioned that the French, he was talking about, oh, the French came over with like, cigarettes and champagne to give us these gifts and then people were really, he said,

people were running around yelling, like, I want the word at end. I don't wanna do this anymore. I don't wanna fight you all anymore, da da da da da da da da. Yeah. Which is exactly what you don't want if you're a person in whose interest it is that the war continues, right?

So they had to stamp down there real quick. Wow. And again, I think it probably had a lot to you with the fact that like, it's real different, I gotta imagine being out in a trench in July, being out in a trench in fucking December. Right, yeah. And then missing your first Christmas at home

and it's not over like they said it was gonna be and now you've got been here for months and you've got trench foot, terrible times. Yeah, and all because Architech Ferdinand got shot. France Ferdinand and then he became a successful indie pot rock outfit. Which, you know, maybe that's the true spirit of Christmas there. Rise from the dead and become an indie rock god.

That's Easter. That's all the calendar baby. That's all Jesus, whatever man, that's all Jesus. At Bet365, we don't do ordinary. That's why we've introduced Same Game Parlay Plus. It's a game changer. Making a same game Parlay across different games has never been easier because the biggest games and most popular markets are now all in one place. Check out our same game Parlay Plus now and find out why. It's never ordinary at bed 365.

Must be nice and older Ontario on this is very responsibility. You are so many know how it's concerned about gambling. Visit connectsontario.ca. Hi, I'm Lauren and I'm Chandler and we're the host of Pop Apologist Podcast. A weekly podcast devoted to celebrity gossip, Hollywood deep dives, real housewives drama and anything and everything Taylor Swift. We're two sisters who make no apologies for our love of pop culture and the fact that A-listers might be more to us than each other. Join us on your favorite podcast app every Wednesday for pop apologists.

Pop apologists, your new favorite sister and celeb podcast. From Hoboken, New Jersey, to San Jose, California, To Fort Lauderdale, Florida. To Portland, Oregon. Wow. He's mapping it out. That's all of the things. We've got Edmonton, Alberta, to Madrid, Spain. Just hopped the Atlantic.

We've got San Diego, California, to Houston, Texas, to your very own Vancouver, BC. Wow. And Vancouver, Washington, I, to Houston, Texas, to your very own Vancouver, BC. Wow. And Vancouver, Washington, I have to say, all of these locales, along with dozens of others, across the Christmas celebrating world. Host a gathering of red-hatted, white-bearded, ho-ho-ho-ing Santas, who love to get obnoxiously drunk, belligerently marry, and vomitingly jolly during the Christmas season. Uh-oh.

Okay. Getting into the eggnog. Yep. Deep into the eggnog. Looking at the bottom of that bottle. Nothing says, Mary Christmas, like pissing in the street and knocking out your neighbor's teeth and spending the night in the drunk tank.

Oh, please. That is, that is too true. That is too true for a lot of family, sadly. Have you ever heard of this huge gathering of Santa's called SantaCon? I must have. I watch a lot of reviews of conventions and post-mortem YouTube essays about very bad conventions. Okay, okay.

So I wonder if this one may be ever fell across my radar, but it kind of describes itself. I guess like you're helping describe it with your voice and words. Yeah. But, but bad Santas is badly behaving Santas in on mass and large volume and presumably their anonymity and their status as Legion emboldens them to act even notier because you're wearing a big fake beard and you look like everyone you're rolling with. Damn dude. Yeah, it's like you were there. So maybe I was. Hello. Santa Con, which is essentially like you say convention when I think of convention, I think of like a designated

convention center and like a plan. The Lannier is Lannier is Lannier is Lannier is Lannier's Lannier's new tags, PowerPoint presentations, lots of free. Exactly. Panels, little USB drives. Oh yeah, USB drive, a stress bomb. Some glasses, yeah. Well, Santa Cone isn't quite that, because it's much more of just like a bar crawl. Oh, well, there you go.

It's more like a pub crawl, bar crawl kind of thing. There you go, yeah. And they take place all across North America, Europe, Australia, some even in South America. There's a total of 355 cities in 49 countries, the host Santa Cans. Wow, wow, wow, wow, men are lovely, wow, cool. I know I got it. I am too.

It's women too, but I think you're right. I think it is quite predominantly men. I listen, I don't discriminate against Santas Vanny gender. They start as early as that last weekend of November and they go as late as December 24th, right up to the holiday. I got those gallons in before you have Christmas day with your family. Right. Yeah. Yeah.

These gatherings are beloved by those who participate in them. And they are absolutely abhorred by those subjected to just the raucous, you don't say of it all. You don't say it. Just binge drinking sannas. Sometimes for some people, it's not their thing, apparently. That beard, I imagine, will catch a lot of chunks. Yeah.

Not to be crass. Not to be crass. But it doesn't seem convenient bonding with the beard. Other than as like a strainer. No. Oh, that's rough. Sorry, I didn't mean to. No, no, no, no.

We have to face these things. It doesn't snow good to pretend. It's true, we've got to face it beard on. Yeah. But these Fratboy-esque... I had that thought too. I was like, they don't like the Fratbrose-hand does get out of town. Yeah.

It's like in cars and fucking my good first on fire stop They weren't always this like brought out and vaped up in fact Santa come has pretty fresh roots in political performance and political theater it sat higher well, I get it now. This is actually the way it went through a satire, but in this very beginning it was an

anarchist civil action that took place in Denmark by a very beloved and well-known group called Soulvong. I feel like I'm gonna start with just a teeny bit of a caveat because if you couldn't tell from the words and the way I was saying my words, I am not a fan of big mask gatherings. No, you made this clear. You made this clear before.

Yeah, okay, good, good. And like a flash mob, no, don't, please don't, I can't. Go away, cancel them. Okay, sorry. Take care of that while other time. Just put away the Tiffany drums, she isn't like it. No, no, yeah, fair enough, me too. I'm that way inclined to, although I understand that like,

I would be a hypocrite to say that I haven't partaken and enjoyed it in many a big celebration. Yeah, I mean, there's a time and a place for everything, but generally, if I am asked to like, do you want to participate in this mass group thing that doesn't really have a purpose? And the purpose is fun. Fun is its own purpose. really have a purpose and the purpose is fun fun is its own purpose play as a purpose fun is a purpose drinking loneliness male loneliness expresses drinking through aggression and the maybe you get to a fight outside in the street that's what a what a whimsical treat so I just I do want to put that caveat out there in case somebody does really like these big gatherings and

Fashmabi at or and or kind of More fraternities There's a time to place as long as you're like yeah as long as you put a coaster over your drink when you leave it then go with God So I just say that to say that this will be colored with my discontent for this type of parting. But I understand that it's a thing. Red with blood and green for envy. Let's talk a little bit more about Santa Con. Sure.

According to SantaCon.com. Where else? The repository of all Santa Con. Sure. According to SantaCon.com. Where else? The repository of all Santa Con information. That should be SantaCon.np for North Pole. Does North Pole have a domain address? Oh. Because that feels like, or like, dot H-O-H-O,

or something like that. These are options. It's the Santa Con put me on the team. Yeah. I've got a great alternate use for the beard to revolve it. We can absorb it, you know? Oh, God. If've got a great alternate use for the beard to revom it. We can absorb it, you know. If we get a material just a little air sick bag in the beard itself, think about it. Oh, that's a that's a very good idea. I was thinking too. We can get the suits made out of that fabric that

like water beads up on. We get some microfiber microfiber red suits. Fominal just roll right off it. Like a vortex situation? Yeah. Breasable? Yeah. Good. We can update some silly words. Santa needs a puffer. A puffer?

Jacket. Puffer jacket. Okay. Also an inhaler for his asthma. Yeah. No, I could have been clear. I could have been clear. Also a fish.

It's from all the vaping. It's all the lady paid flavored vaping. The vaping says no to eat. I don't vape. That's my own original creation, the no-vaping. Cool. That's a great question. Oh my god. Okay. Okay, ascentecon.com says, uh, Santa Con is a convention of Santas. Groups of men and women dressed like Santa. You said that like it was supposed to be surprising. Also, you say as opposed to an officially, it's not a bar crawl is what you mean to say.

Correct. And it's like, you know, seed intent. Got it. SantaCon.com poses the question, why do it? Because it's fun. Period. Hard stuff. What did I say? That is all. What did I say immediately? Fun is the reason. Next.

It's one of the few chances left for adults to be silly without any kind of agenda. I agree. And I think it's a travesty that adults aren't allowed to trick or treat that bothers me. And when I get into Congress, I agree and I think it's the travesty that adults aren't allowed to trick or treat that bothers me. And when I get into Congress, I'm gonna fix it. But for me. Yeah, that's my platform. Boat for Taylor B.

Yeah, and also no juice boxes you old bag. Candy only. What about raisins? We had a long conversation about raisins and I'm not sure where I came. I've had raisins since that episode and really enjoyed them. Enjoyed them more since I knew that there was like drama in it. Yeah. Now that I know that these raisins are messy little bitches, I like them more.

I'm glad we had a check in about raisins because I do feel the same exactly. Okay, good, good. Raisins says this is an update. We like raisins now. Spicy now. SantaCon.com asks the question, where is it? The answer, everywhere. Look behind you.

If you don't see Santa, check the locations page, which is a hyperlink, to another web page on their site, where they list their 355 cities and 49 cities. You can go to Santa Con, Menzania, you can go to Santa Con, Gastad, you can go to Santa Con, Nairobi, got it. And according to SantaCon.com Wikipedia, which is a page that is on their website. So wicipedia or like wiccia? It's a no it's like it is a page on their website and it has like the wicipedia font and layout but it's just their thing. It's because the other one of wicipedia got vandalized and so they're

like we're gonna control this one but there's like, I would say there's like 150 words. That's it. Nothing more. That's new. I probably not, I'm probably not that new, but I've never seen it before. That's just like mock up a fake Wikipedia and be like, listen, if real Wikipedia won't play ball,

we will just make our own. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Very, very, very strange. But according to this very short Wikipedia article, a very short and potentially false Wikipedia article, Santa Con as, as we know it, started in San Francisco in 1994. Let's hope in for Santa Cruz. Let's hope open for Santa Cruz. Oh, or Santa Barbara, Santa. Yeah, it works with anything called Santa. It's like the new one. Yeah. Doesn't work with the mingro actually. Okay, awful notes over there. Oh, this first one in 1994 was sponsored by a group called the San Francisco Cacophony Society. They were a pretty much an artistic collective, kind of a gathering of crazy cookie folks. Okay San Francisco types. Sprinkle a little Portland in there too. Sure. Kind of I have. Sure. And it's the mid-90s,

you know. And we'll come back later to the history. But I want us to know that it's a fresh baby. It's a 94 baby. Right. It's not that old. Also on the Santa Conde website are some guidelines for how to celebrate, how to behave in a Santa C con gathering. Can you guess how many guidelines there?

Oh God, two. No. Zero. Go up. Oh, war. High. Oh, high. 148. Lower. Oh God. Eighty-two get a little taste here. Sure sure snowy sprinkling We'll start with one because where else to start? For the purpose of Santa Con Christmas in quotation marks is the name of a popular secular holiday and has no religious connotations Much like the word holiday Wow, this doesn't mean we don't respect religious views. It simply means that taking part in Santa Con does imply you support any particular religion or

doctrine. It's just silly fun. Santa gone work. This used to be a book for Jesus. I also have another suggestion for a guideline. I want to predict this guideline. Oh, okay. Iredict. Is there a code of conduct around acknowledging the cavefeab of Santa to children? Number 11. Santa does not make children cry. Does this really need to be said? Seriously, don't you see kids? Don't do anything to freak them out. Yeah. Give them a nice smile and possibly a gift of some kind. Dada, dada.

I was gonna say, don't quite load a turtion in front of the kids, but then I remembered that some people actually do like that in their Christmas celebration. Yes, yes. It's very funny, no. I don't know. Yeah, don't, don't, um, it's very like take your hat off for a lady, like wipe the vomit chunks out of your beard if a kid comes by. But what if, but that's the thing is that like, I think it's fucked up what we teach kids about Santa and then don't expect them to apply to a Christian God in terms of like this magic guys fake that this one is it you have to actually have to believe in this other guy for the rest of your life but this one is a thing like when you were 14. That's a fatal

flaw in the system that you've pointed out there Taylor Basso. I don't know I think that um that makes sense yeah don't don't be an asshole to children I support that. Another rule here will ping back to two. Sure. Dress up. A Santa hat alone is not enough. Okay. You don't have to dress exactly like Santa, but the theme is red. And that typeface, it's bold, it's italics, it's in red. I'd better be in red. That, having been said, unusual interpretations of Santa's nests are often appreciated, and Christmas trees, elves,

reindeer themes, etc. are all good. 3. Have fun. Sure. 4. Don't Get Drunk. Ooooo. 6.

Watch out for elves. Elves work hard for Santa all year and especially hard during the holiday season. Santa loves his elves except when they show up to his red-themed event dressed in green. Traditionally, elves are abused at Santa Con. What a twist. I thought. Wait for it. Number seven. Not all of these guidelines should be taken seriously. Ah ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha Santa's have some sass, they're serving up more than just coal here. Don't get drunk in public, number nine. Being drunk and or disorderly in public will tarnish Santa's reputation.

One bad Santa could ruin things for an entire location, because we're all dressed the same. The. Yeah. Also, it's an offense, and you will get arrested. Remember, there is no bail fund for incarcerated Santa's, and if you cross the line, you'll be on your own. Don't be that Santa.

Yeah, I mean, but like, how do you regulate drunkenness at an event that's like known for drunkenness? You can like, you can officially discourage it all you want, but you like, when you entered this story to me in your bias way, you don't want to be vomited on by a 21-year-old that you don't know. So these high-failure next expectations. Yeah, how do you manage that? Like it becomes part of your brand, right? Number 10, if you do get drunk in public, you should get into a fight with

other Santas, get arrested as quickly as possible before anyone gets hurt. Be carted away in handcuffs and have the whole thing recorded on video for the evening news and YouTube. I mean, not to be obvious, I'm getting some mixed messages here serious or joking or otherwise. I think it probably like, I get what they're saying is that like if you like Our barometer is you're too stupid to understand sarcasm. You're not allowed to play Santa game And I get that it feels counterproductive even as a joke to have something like that in your guidelines. Yeah Number 22 Santa loves the media, but Santa doesn't talk to the press Having fun never seems to be enough of an answer to the most popular question what's it all about. Seriously, no one speaks for Santa, not you, not me, not

even Santa. You could express your opinion, but since you're dressed like Santa, the media might treat it as Santa's opinion. Yeah, we gotta stay on brand, Santa has an image. 23, read these guidelines one more time. 24, if you've reached this rule, it means you didn't get locked into the loop reading the guidelines over and over again as per the previous rule. You are therefore probably intelligent enough.

Oh, geez. To take part in Santa Cone. So some nerd had a real great time writing this. Let me tell you. Mm-hmm. Then number 25, have a very merry Christmas. That's sweet. That's cute.

That's fun. I mean, I get like, as an activity, I get it. Yeah. In like a rugby 7's kind of way, right? People love to dress up. What's rugby 7's? Rugby event where it's popular. I don't know if this isn't around the world's thing, but it isn't Vancouver.

It's a big rugby game where you come come dressed up in silly costumes in the audience. Yeah, kind of that, kind of that vibe. And it's sort of similarly to this, a little bit of a shit show, you know? It's a piss up in costumes with your first. Yeah, yeah, and that's fun, until it gets to out of hand. Until the gift start falling out of the sleigh and that bell starts coming loose and that tummy starts spilling out over those easy fit red crushed velvet elastic waist pants and All of a sudden you got a hole in your boot and you didn't know that there was coal on your fingertips

You've been accidentally rubbing it into your eyes all night disaster vomit chunks in your beard chunks The beard very early on. Yeah, the first thing I was first place. I went was I was like I don't like the look of that beard in this context. And we can tell from these rules that it's not always the clearest of guidelines, but in the rules say, don't get drunk about four different times,

you know that there's a lot of drinking in balls. Yeah, those rules don't, those rules don't, like, you don't often have the rules to beg you not to get drunk in this way, that's true. But then also simultaneously advise you to get drunk like as a little joke, just for us. Right, yeah, little winky winky. Yeah.

She's a little, a little glass of agnog, so okay though. One glass, just one. Again and again. There are debauchers Group of Santas that is for sure and To give you a sense of kind of the public response to this. This is an article that was published at the time of recording a mere eight hours ago. The Santas are coming out of their hibernation an

NBC New York and it is entitled, you can't even bring water on New Jersey transit this Saturday. Subheading, the MTA is banning alcohol on the Long Island Railroad and Metro North for 32 hours, starting at 4am Saturday because of Santa Con and New York City. So that means alcohol can't be on any of the transit, but because they're so concerned about people carrying alcohol, absolutely no liquids will be permitted on public transit between New Jersey, Long Island,

and New York. Yeah. That's a draconian, but also how bad are these Santas? Is it worth going into martial law and setting a curfew and all this shit? Because are these Santas really that bad? Is it possible? Because it's such a raucous event, not all bars and pubs in participating cities are necessarily participating in Santa Con.

I mean, if places that drunk people wander into. Right, yeah. So if you roll up in a Santa suit, there is the likelihood that you will be escorted to the nearest chimney, shoved up it. According to one Bushwick bar owner, and you can tell that some of this, like, a lot of these center around New York, and it's because the Santa Con in New York and surrounding areas, New Jersey, Long Island, there's some of the biggest Santa cons in the country.

Oh God, I don't even want to think about Santa Con takes Times Square. That gives me hives. Big time. According to one Bushwick bar owner by the name of Mike Ireland, he said Santa Con is like the worst Saturday night times 3000. No, no. You have thousands of people dumped onto the neighborhood, they come in, wreck it and leave. It's comparable to a bad frat party.

Yeah, it seems to have spring break vibes. It seems to have spring break vibes. But in Santa costumes, it's just like this is a weird layer. Yeah. Another bar owner in the same Bushwick neighborhood recalled a Santa con of years ago when he asked this patron to pay his bar tab, this Santa clad bar patron responded, Santa doesn't pay, and he poked the bar owner in the eye with candy cane.

It's like a god of the... I could have finished the sentence. Yeah, mail the tab to the North Pole bitch H-O-H-O-H-O. H-O-H-O. That's do you know about H-O-H-O? That's in Canada, when you write in Canada. Okay, so here's a little piece of Canadian lore for you. We have a program where if you write, I don't know what the state of it is, but when I was

a kid, you could write a letter to Santa and they would have someone write a letter back to you and you had to mail it to the North Pole H-O-H-O. That was the postal code. Oh, that's so cute. Oh, that's right, because Canadian postal codes are a matchup of letters and numbers. So it's H0H0H0. Oh my God, that's good, huh? That's so sweet.

I love that. So you can imagine arrests during Santa Con go crazy. Arrests for being drunk in public in decent exposure. One New York resident John Nelson said of the 2018 Santa Con and I quote him when he says I was in Dwayne Reed on 14th and 3rd aisle 4 and I'll never forget I saw an exquisite sex sack in the aisle two Santas going at it. Oh Yeah, oh Yeah, oh Dear oh dear

Santa was coming down to the chimney man. Yeah It's coming down to the most chimney, man. Yeah. Santa baby. And we read I'll for geez right right next to your products, you know, like, fuck. Yeah. Yeah. Really, really, gnarly. That same Bushwick neighborhood, a group of bar owners got together and launched a boycott Santa Conde website, Twitter page,

an email campaign when it was still Twitter I suppose. Asking other bar owners to quote prohibit from your bar anyone dressed as Santa Claus, Mrs. Claus, sexy Claus, elves, sexy elves, reindeer, sexy reindeer, snowman, sexy snowman, candy canes, sexy candy canes. No, no. Crompus, sexy Crompus, and he's- Crompus is by definition sexy. For sexy variant of that costume. By definition, Crompus' whole thing is that he's like kind of a weird fuck monster.

So this is a ratio, first of all, that's culturally, that's actually second of all. Third of all. No, no, they had me at first and then they said no intense. Actually, second of all, third of all. No, no, they had me at first and then they said, no Mrs. Claus, and I was like, there's no, that's no, no one goes out dressed it as Mrs. Claus alone. You're just banding old white women from your bar. And then I was like, I don't think it's young women too, trying to be like.

Who's dressing as Mrs. Claus without a Santa? I don't know, dude. It only works in relation to the Santa. But then, to go further on and start banning like sexy snowmen, sexy Olaf, you know, whatever? No, no, no, no, no. No, that's silly. It's a lot, it's a lot, yeah. It will be a sexy snowman, I'm allowed to be a sexy snowman, that's nothing to do with Santa Clause. It's said in the rules, there's nothing about snowmen. And they had a lot in there.

Most of it was about, please stop, please stop blacking out and giving me news interviews. Were you sure you'd take me? But to be fair, I suppose it's like those Bushwick Barnows are asking other bars to not encourage On Santa con days there be yeah fucking Christmas Eve their grinship sexy grins I'm into it. I'm more than again. I much like the crime's loose. I feel like sex feels baked into the grinch Much like the crime-poose, I feel like sex feels baked into the grinch. No! It's hard to know the only thing that can grow a few sizes, man.

So what I'm saying is to show me that grassy bitch. What I am attempting to say is that I think that also I think it's kind of funny that this is like Bushwick Brooklyn bars, you know? Like just like, which is like kind of hipster central, like if anyone's going to be a wet blanket about a sexy, this is possible for them to target these poses, right? There is perhaps a silver lining to the Santa Con situation. Sure. And then starting in 2009, there was a charitable component added on to the festivities, and in order to participate in Santa Con, you would purchase a $15 ticket, and all the proceeds would go towards families and need for the holiday.

That makes sense, I can't believe that they're being a charitable component as it come up before now. That feels important. Right, I know, right? That first year, they raised $30,000. Nice. Nice. But it's not all silver linings. That was just like the one silver, small silver linings you didn't even ever go back to shit, huh?

I go back to it. Not all silver linings. We had a Santa take advantage of this situation, and in 2014, downtown San Francisco, at 1 p.m. in the afternoon in the 400 block of Sutter Street. A individual dressed up as a Santa entered a bank, passed the Teller a note asking for all their money. Yes. They said that they had a handgun with them as well. Though Sergeant Monica McDonald never saw a weapon in the security videos.

Okay. Apparently the teller who ended up handing him a bag full of cash and watched the Santa flee into a mass of other red-clad Santas. The perfect crime. Any other day Santa would have stood out, she said, but that day Santa was everywhere. Wow. Wow. That robbery, that crime, has yet to be

solved. I know who did it. It was Santa, bitch. It was fucking Santa. It's pretty good. Yeah, perhaps my disinclination for these mask gatherings is coloring things, coloring them not in their festive red and green, because according to Santa Con's current New York organizer, and he only gives his name as Santa. In keeping with the established rules. He declined to give his real name because, as he said, there was no figurehead to Santa Khan. Everyone could be Santa. It's a philosophical stance for this event. Quote, ink quote. Santa? I'm trying to categorize whether this would be a Sarah or a Nistar, you know what I mean?

The state of being Santa. This like this metaphysical into like the ways in which we embody Santa at any given moment, you know what I mean? Yeah, I think it's because Santa Con has caught a lot of flak and there's been a lot of arrests and a lot of like civic and police worry and injunction surrounding it. So they don't want to put a figurehead at the top of it because they'll just get in trouble. If you just put Santa then what are you gonna do? Is this like a charitable or gonna like what is this? What is is there a central body to the Santa-ing and if so like are they do they have a board? What is the algorithm by Santa? What is this? I think they do all go by Santa. I don't think it's like a...

It's an anonymous one. That's fucking weird and suspicious as hell, but I dig it. Yeah. That's like when they buying organs, what the fuck? That's really... That's like some human trafficking shit. Yeah, I'm on a board. None of us use our names. Jesus. He says that Santa Con is merely misunderstood. Outsiders are uncomfortable with this

because it is such a creative celebration. It's just like too hit for everybody. I don't know. to hit for everybody. I don't know. He says, quote, it draws criticism very easily from people because it's rare to see so much unbridled joy and optimism outside. So like haters are jealous. Basically got it, got it.

It has a little bit of that. I know this guy, he doesn't seem fully above board when asked what it must be like for children who see folks participating in Santa Con and all these Santas out having their merry time. Fucking in the aisle, Dwayne Reed. If you will, he says, why is that parent lying to their kid about Santa? What I mean is, what difference does it make to see a person drinking in jeans or in a

Santa suit? No, that's willfully ignorant. That's a lie. That is not the question. The question is got him. But it really gets down to you. Why do people wear clothes, man? Like, what do we try to do? I'm like, sure, sure. Yeah, sure. There's a conversation if you had there, but like, it's conversation if you had there but like it's fuck them kids. That's a great way to endure your sentence to the event. Fuck those kids. Fuck those parents. Why are they in a bar? Why the fuck did you bring your kid to a bar, bro? You're stupid. Your kid's gay. What are you doing to do man? Uh, and there's, it's definitely like not just in bars because it's a bar crawl. Oh, it spills out into the street and it spills out into the Dwayne Reed. Yeah, obviously, yes, yes.

It's literally spilling all over the Dwayne Reed. Oh god. And it's earliest iteration in the US, which we talked about, San Francisco, 1994. That first year, it was only 34 participants. They gathered under the guidance of a man named John Lawson. An article from the Village Voice gives the name John Lawson. So I will be using that name too,

but Santa Con was created by a collective. So there are a few different names out there that are used as Santa Con's founder. But like I say, we're just going to stick with John Lawson just for simplicity sake, knowing that there might be some other people involved too. He was interested in gathering these folks, everybody dressing up as Santa to quote shock people, meaning like the larger population. The normies. Shock the normies, and put them in a different reality.

Oh, okay, the fucking Heath Ledger is the Joker over here, man. Oh, yeah. What if we dress up as San and smoke cigarette? Oh, woo-woo-woo-woo-woo. I got it. Sacred The Profane. dressed up as San and smoked cigarette. Oh, I got it. Sacred the Perfain. They first gathered at the Ferry Building in San Francisco and made their way to Macy's department store.

They crashed a debut-tomp ball at the very fancy Faremont Hotel. Ooh. Lawson says we were dancing with the girls, grandmother's, the people thought we were part of the entertainment. They cheered as we kept rolling through the door. It was like clowns coming out of a van and a continuous stream surreal. People applauded when we left. Oh, he's making art this guy, huh?

Mid-90s making art. He's the Scorsese of people dressing up as Santa. I remember no one being drunk at all. He also says. I don't believe that. Yeah, yeah, no one believes that. I don't believe that. Yeah Especially because there was this other element of the inaugural Santa con in which Lawson himself jumped from a building scaffolding and essentially hung himself as Santa. So so this is this is part of his like Judy funny shit where he's like uh Santa is on we yes we are on Santa but we all die as Santa dies in our gym like he's really thinks he's saying something here. It was a very simple joke making fun of Christmas. Got him. Yeah. Tuture, Tuture man. Tuture. Yeah he was to be clear. He was wearing a harness.

It was not an actual... Yeah, no, but that's not... That's needy, man. That's needy. Because then the next year when it happened again, and Santa Con grew from 34 participants to 100, and this is a quote from him again, they pretended to be a Santa Claus union that was on strike. Lawson played the role of a Santa who had crossed the picket line, killed the scab, one boy stressed Santa boomed,

and they hanged him from a street lamp on market street. Oh my god, this is like rent. This is like something Idina Menzel's character would do in rent, and I would hate it, and I would just be like, this movie is terrible, I won't only do it. would do in rent and I would hate it and I would just be like this is this movie is terrible I want to would you quote this is why the collective mind is so brilliant we haven't planned that it just happened oh my god site specific theater tissue bitch site specific improv theater my god that's a lot more I and I mean this with all the love in my heart that's a lot more pretentious than what it would kind of a calm in the public imagination and I don't know which is worse. No, they sound they both sound like really bad nights out. Yeah, really, really. They started doing performance art. Yeah. He feigned a hanging. His

meaning was very vague. He seemed anti Christmas or like he wanted to subvert or queer Christmas. But it was unclear why. I was unclear to what end. He was just playing in the space and yet a harness he wanted to use. Yeah, I think that may have been it. A few years after that, he took Santa Con to New York, Rockefeller Center, Central Park, apparently a police officer yelled at him, hey, sailor, can you give me a date with Cindy Crawford? Good period detail. Period in place. New York in 1995.

And then when this troop of Santa Con Santas in Central Park, they yelled in unison Merry Christmas to a bunch of ice skaters on an ice rink. And all the skaters burst into cheers and whoops. Lawson recalls of the moment. I almost started crying. I stopped hating Christmas then. Okay, so. Tell me what you think. I can't decide whether I want to be charitable or not.

I'm gonna go with yes is Christmas. Okay, okay. Yeah. I want to that's that's a nice ending to the story of like I becoming Santa, right? Like yeah. Yeah. I was so like again we love these stories about you know the Christmas spirit as this like force of good that can kind of just like infuse even Ebenezer's scrooge after a really long bad melatonin dream can wake up and be like, no Christmas is good I know everything. I'm all the shit I said about that public hanging that I feigned, scratch it. Some people, I just realized that people enjoy Santa. Like, come on. But that also how nice. But also like you pretend she's ass,

but also good for you. Well, he did get some commitments in this because years later, he was living in New York and he walked out on his front stoop one December Saturday to find an eight-year-old Santa vomiting on his front steps. You live by the sword you die by a sword as we like to say on this podcast.

Like, that's very much your own chickens coming home to roost there. Yup, I agree on that one, for sure. But this was not his idea out of thin air, like most ideas they come from somewhere. Right. Where he got this idea was reading an article in Mother Jones, a publication, kind of a leftist. Yep. And the article was published in 1977 and it was about a Danish political movement, how they used the Santa suit and a large group of people dressed as Santas to make a political statement. I mentioned at the very

beginning they're called Solvang. This article I have a copy of thanks to an archived copy of Mother Jones. Perfect. So it's written by Ellen Frank and the title of it is Santa gets busted in Copenhagen, published in their community section. And I think to give you a sense of this group, they were young socialists, Marxist-minded folks who lived about a mile outside of Copenhagen in a self-governing anarchist community named Kristiana. Oh boy. And it was on an old military base.

It had been decommissioned. Oh, of course it has. They took it over. Perfect. They were a political artist group, and they did all these different types of actions or happenings or whatever you want to do. Yes, yes.

In the vein of political theater, but to me it feels a little bit more performance piece because it's not specifically in theater spaces or it's not in spaces that are deemed like stages or like- It's experimental in some way. Yes, and it's typically like very elaborate kind of over the top demonstrations. Yes. Yes.

There were in public spaces and then included all different types of people. And one of their goals was to make political action more accessible, to make it more fun, and to make it for everybody who would be involved. True. I think you do need to make your public displays of whatever I catching in sexy if you want to win over hearts and minds. Yeah. You don't have to do this. It's a strategy, right? I'll tell you a little bit about this Christmas situation in Denmark. 1974, this group, Solvang, living on essentially a commune, a mile outside of the city.

Cristiana, I was taking notes for the test. I know, I love this, this is good. In English and Danish. Wow, you've been busy, you're there. So collectively, it was about 75 Santa clauses, both men and women, all dressed as Santa. They called themselves Christmas men, which translates from the Danish to pretty much Christmas army. Got it. It's very like a house brand Santa, Christmas man, you know? The generic generic brand, yeah. They started this performance, we'll say, acting as like these

newcomers to town from the northern regions of Denmark. So they they're not from the north, but they pretended to be these sentiment, these Christmas men coming down from the north and being like, we want to spread the good cheer. We are here. Oh my. This thing is so stupid, but I'm into it, but I love humans, dude. I really do. So these are inside thoughts, proceed. You can have your out loud thoughts. I'll just keep those inside. And they came to realize that Christmas had been corrupted by greed and capitalism. So the week began with a helicopter arrival of only one of the Christmas man, but it was this kind of symbolic like we have arrived and then this huge group of all 75 of them marched in a parade more or less with this large float

of a goose of a white Christmas goose, they marched into Copenhagen. Okay. And March sounds maybe a little more intense. It was more of a parade. It wasn't militant. It wasn't, uh, they weren't succeeding. Got it. Okay. Then they were met by more

Santas, as well as white robed angels. Very beautiful. Very lovely. This has a budget. Uh-huh. And the whole parade, they were carrying small Danish flags. So it was very patriotic. Yay, Denmark, let's go. During that parade, they passed out coffee and cookies to the surrounding onlookers. It was all very congenial, lovely, that kind of thing. On the third day, and I'm reading from the article now, the Christmas men went to a recently closed General Motors factory, relocated to Germany

because more cars could be sold there. They jumped the plant gates and entered the factory where only a few workers remained sweeping up. Musicians played, workers in Santa's saying and danced, and all gathered for Christmas banquet. The press was a long as usual and chronicle at all, including the arrival of the plant manager, who firmly announced that it was undemocratic

to inter-private property. The celebration dispersed before the police arrived. That night, the army of Santa's marched through central Copenhagen, singing carols about the greed they had seen since their arrival. So these are bitchee Santas? They are angry Santas. Yeah, well rightly so, capitalism has shut down, you know, the assembly line. On the fourth day of the Christmas arrival, now they marched to the Workers Court, which is where the unions gather

and arbitrates kind of like a political realm. But I really like actually now the juxtaposition of the name, the Christmas Mines, with like the bleakness of this tale and the increasing like threat and non-santill likeness of their actions. I've got, this is, it's the Bjork fan in me, but this is good art so far.

I yeah I do enjoy it. So at the workers court, this is where the Christmasmen asked why were people out of work? They could see no shortage of money. The speech delivered by a Santa Claus held high on a crane was written by a highly respected law professor, a man who had marched with the army for several days and also served as advisor and tactician during encounters with the police. He told the Christmas army how to avoid arrest as long as possible, and when they were arrested at last, he guided their court defense. A basic tactic was always to remain in character as Christmas men, peaceful, cheerful, non-violent.

It always helps to have a lawyer on hand, cheerful, non-violent. It always helps to have a lawyer on hand, huh? On your side. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah. Especially when you're Santa, I suppose. It's Miracle and 34th Street Tudd is nothing. The next day in Copenhagen, 35 of these Santas, entered a department store in town and they started taking books off of the shelves in the book department of this large store and they handed them out to patrons and said here Mary Christmas and the patrons leave with the books and

finally the police were called in all the Santas were escorted out of the department store, but it got somewhat violent, and eventually the police were beating up these Santas. In public view, kids were crying. Everyone was super upset. And if the Christmasmen had already gained a little bit of traction because it was this weird art performance thing, now they had this huge boost of public. Now they're not there Antifa. Now they're like, these fucking pigs, beaten up on the sand to the Christmas man. Yeah, I know exactly. I really like it. I think it's very, very funny. There's something to I think about that we love the image of Santa doing non-Santa like things. That's true.

I specifically think back to Lapland New Forest, which is the first of our Christmas episodes that we did. It's about this like, oh yeah! That was like number three, right? That was when number four, it's way way back back. That's way, way, way, apologies for that, but it's the stories of just this, like, whatever the most beautiful magical Christmas festival you're thinking of is, imagine the opposite and everyone ends up getting sued for fraud, et cetera. And it involves like Santa punching the dads in the face.

And again, kids crying and elves fucking, haven't smoked great except in the parking lot in front of the guests and stuff like that. And this has sort of that same compelling factor to it. I don't know. I really enjoyed the political element that Interest that like this whole season is about giving and generosity But when you challenge a capitalist mindset, then it's like, but you can't give away bucks. What are you talking? There's only yours to give away. you can't give away books. What are you talking about?

There's only yours to give away. You can't just give people things. You know, he's Santa and that's his whole thing that he's supposed to. Right, yeah. And that's why, as a patron, like if some rando came up to you and just had a book,

it was like here, take this, you'd be like, um, no. But if it's Santa, you're like, oh, well, it is the reason for the season. Thanks so much for the book. Let's go. You're just like they said you were. You're exactly like the book said.

Thank you. I will take this. It's so good. And that's their last action. They kind of culminate into it. Oh, that's so sad because in my head, I was like, I wonder if they can get all the way to 12 days. That's the dream here.

Oh, no. 12 days of Christmas. That's fine. 25. Jeez, let's turn it into an all year thing. That'd the dream here. Oh no. 12 days of Christmas. That's 25. Geez. Let's turn it into an all year thing. That'd be a lot. No, I think when the police start to beat you up, you kind of figure out how to move on. No. I think the Sanchez need to start like lashing themselves to like things and start like he's already been in a crane, given a law professor speech. That's true. That's true. You know, rallying. Yeah. And so this only happens the one year, because one of their, they don't have a lot of rules. This solvang, we only have one rule.

Never do anything twice. Interesting. For this purpose, it's kind of cool because once you start doing things over and over Santa Con for an example. Yeah, kind of spiral out of its intention. Then it turns into like Don't come wearing green or you could get beat up Yeah, exactly which is like wait. I thought this was about okay. What? What is the reason for this season? It is so interesting how things spin out from where they originally start, huh? Really is. That San Francisco John Lawson guy was like, Oh, I love this! Let's wear Santa suits and have a mock lynching.

That'll be great. It's like, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. It feels like how does that... I get it now. What happened? That right there was the, the boundary where it moved from like the pretentious to like the choches because this man was both. Yes. He was pretentious enough to be reading the mother Jones article and really see it in himself

and internalize that like he needed to do his own like theater kid version of this and then had to recur to him that people experience joy from Santa, but he's also like enough of a debag to start the ball rolling to spread it to the other debags, you know? So I see what happened here. Debag affectionate. You will probably not be surprised to know that that group that he was part of, the San Francisco Cacophony Society, a birth to group called the Suicide Club, which is an early antecedent to another large artistic gathering of folks in the desert, Burning Man.

Burning Man, Burning Man, Burning Man, yeah. For me, that was like, yeah, I get it. I feel it, I'm on it. I got the vibe. I see how these who have a shared genetic ancestor. Burners, it's like packaged and branded in a certain way. We're all just looking for a connection, aren't we? We're all just looking for connection.

And drugs and alcohol. Sex and aisle four, doing real. Oh man. Oh, we can find an alley, dude. But I should say that so long, even though it was a very combative, well I shouldn't say combative because that implies that they were fighting. They were just like very critical of the Danish government and really trying to uphold a Danish sentiment that wasn't so influenced by commercialism, in particular American

commercialism. They since then, so in the last 50 years, have become a mainstay of Danish culture. How interesting. Like they've been inducted into national archive kind of vibes. Like they've been recognized for their work in a very official and governmental way. And there it's like a proud Danish institution, so far. How interesting, how interesting, cool. Yeah, and I guess I as an American can be so proud that Santa Con is such a reflection of American values and yeah celebration and joy and

vaping and vomiting. Dang. Yeah, and Taylor, Santa Con in Vancouver takes place this coming Saturday. If you're ready. Are you ready to do a little reconnaissance for the pod? No, no. You're not gonna do it for the pod? No, no. Let me look at my calendar.

Oh. Oh. God, it's quite open. I really don't want to. No, no, let me look at my calendar Got it's quite open. I really don't want to I like much like yourself. It's just the last place I want to be Well, they begin at library square pub I need I was got kicked out of library square for wearing a tank top fuck you didn't get kicked over Me put on my jacket bro. This is a Pete Wentz DJ session calm down Followed boy had just played a concert at the Commodore and then there was a Pete Wentz DJ set Which like my it was the same set as the guy before him basically and there was nothing special about it In my head. It's like the guy from bring it on who's just going around peddling the same routine from down to down. He also ordered a single Guinness to the DJ booth with a straw in it.

Slip that bad boy down and kind of hit the veneers. That's a sign dude. You gotta go. That sweet memory. You gotta make more down there. That's a sign, dude. You gotta go. That sweet memory, you gotta make more down there. Yeah, so, no, I'm not gonna do that. I'm gonna do that now. It's also when he's doing that. That's the same thing that I did.

This is the way it just sees it. I'm not going. It's not happening. But that is a story of the true Christmas spirit, political action to pretentious, artistic interpretation to just flat out debat.

Yeah, I cross boost fest. Yeah. I mean, I am kind of describing like the conversation at the Christmas dinner table. Aren't I? Politics. It does tend to move that way. It does tend to move that way. Debatched. That's dead on. I do think we we have a pretty genius invention here. The beard bag. The stick bag in the beard. Yeah. I think we got something hot. As long as it's easy to just chuck in the washer, set it and forget it. Yeah. Yeah. Shark tank here, we come. That's what I'm saying. It'll be the hottest item in the holiday season Just like the pet rock. That's where all their money came from. Was that Christmas money? Yeah, I think we could do that again

Thanks for listening if you want more infamy we've got plenty more episodes and fittersweetinthemy.com Want more infamy? We've got plenty more episodes at BitterSweetInthamy.com. Or wherever you listen to podcasts. If you want to support the podcast, shoot us a few bucks via our coffee account. At KO-F-I-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D- Maybe you can always support us by liking, rating, subscribing, leaving a review following us on Instagram at bittersweetinthemy or just past podcasts long to a friend who you think would dig it. Stay sweet. My sources for this week's Memphis came from the International War Museums. The articles included voices of the First World War,

over by Christmas, Voices of the First World War, Christmas at War, Voices of the First World War, the Christmas Chuse, and the real story of the Christmas Chuse. You can access those at iwm.org.uk. Happy holidays. The sources that I used for this episode include an article from the Village Voice

entitled Ho Ho Wo How Santa Con went from joyful performance art to Viled Bar Crawl by Meredith Hoffman published December 9th 2014. I read an article from inj as a new Jersey.com, their entertainment section. The article was entitled Santa Con Lawyers Up and Scales Back Event for Protest as Trains Ban Alcohol. It was published December 11, 2014 and written by Amy Cappernisky. An article from the LA Times, Santa Rob San Francisco Bank, putting the con in Santa Con. Written by Veronica Roca December 16th, 2014,

I watched last week tonight with John Oliver, his web exclusive entitled Santa Con, posted to YouTube by last week tonight, December 8th, 2019. I watched a YouTube video, second annual San Francisco concofidny society Santa Con. It was posted to YouTube by Chuck Sharino December 25th, 2014. I read from the Mother Jones article Santa gets busted in Copenhagen by Ellen Frank. It was published December 1977.

And of course, I looked at SantaCon.com for their guidelines, their own Wikipedia page, and just general information about SantaCon. I read an article from NBC New York. You can't even bring water on New Jersey Transit this Saturday or next. Run by NBC New York staff, published December 7, 2023. As always, a special shout out to our monthly subscriber Jonathan Nellan. Thank you for all you do.

And if you too would like to become a monthly subscriber, go ahead and visit our coffee page, k-o-fi.com slash bittersweetimpy. That's k-o-fi.com-slash-bittersweetimpfe. That's k-o-fi.com-slash-bittersweetimpfe. If you're able to throw us a few bucks, that'd be great. If not, please enjoy last year's Christmas Mix Tape and this year's Christmas Mix Tape.

In January, we'll have a new edition of our film club featuring heavily creatures. Become a monthly subscriber to access that one. Bitter Speed Infinite is a proud member of the 604 podcast network. The interstitial music you heard earlier is by Mitchell Collins, and the song you're listening to now is Teastreeb

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