“Police ask bars not to serve ‘SantaCon’ participants”
So reads a USA Today headline. But have no fear, they’re talking about New York City, not State College.
One objective that we Santa Crawl organizers have is to show the local State College community that it is possible for a large group of people to enjoy the downtown bar scene without it turning into a drunken mob. We encourage Crawlers to behave responsibly – and, to date, we have been very successful (I am, knock on wood, unaware of any alcohol related incident in our ten year existence). So far, unlike State Patty’s Day, we have stayed on the good side of both the local bars and the local police force (I was pleasantly surprised one year to find out that one of our participants was an off-duty State College police officer). We want that to continue.
The Santa Con website sums it up pretty well when they explain:
“Santa spreads JOY. Not terror. Not vomit. Not trash. Would you want those under YOUR tree? … Santa stays safe. Santa does not drink more than Santa can handle. Doing so endangers Santa’s self, Santa’s friends, and the future of SantaCon.”
So let’s enjoy ourselves, but also let’s not be “that guy”.