Through the years, I’ve seen some absolutely wonderful outfits and have finally decided to list my personal favs. Some of them are quite complex, others are wonderfully simple. There’s nothing specific that I can put my finger on that makes something catch my fancy. There’s some some outfits that really clicked with me.
So here goes in countdown format.
10. Don Ho Ho Ho
Proof that your outfit does have to be complex to make it into my Hall of Fame. A simple Hawaiian shirt, shades, some sunblock, a Santa hat and a lei and you have Don Ho Ho Ho, a brilliant idea by Tom Hughes (the three wise men appear later in this list).
9. Jesus
Someone I haven’t the faintest clue as to whom he might. For that matter, I’m not even sure he’s supposed to be Jesus. I was just won over by all of his disciples in this snippet from our official 2016 photo.
8 The Miser Brothers
Kevin Becker and Rob Peterson pulled off Heat Miser and Snow Miser beautifully. They make the list even though I’ve never seen “The Year Without a Santa Claus”. They just look too much like the characters below to not include them.
7. Jack Frost
Brian Bumbarger, front man for the Insomniacs, showed up at Cafe 210 impersonating Jack Frost for Santa Crawl 11 back in 2014. He wore the outfit the entire night even when performing at the Brewery from 10 pm til 2 am.
6. The Leg Lamp
Ray Rockey came up with just a brilliant idea as he dressed as the leg lamp from the Christmas Story movie. Here’s Rockey from another angle.
5. Santa Fred
Keith “Goon” Conlin was just brilliant as he reached into the cartoon bag and came up with a Fred Flintstone inspired outfit. I love how Goon towers over his co-worker in this picture snapped at this office before the Crawl. Fred made his debut at Santa Crawl 8 in 2011.
Fred in a more complete outfit.
4. The Nutcracker
Tracy Wagner made a couple of appearances at the Crawl as the Nutcracker. The first was at Santa Crawl 4 in 2007. There have been a few Nutcrackers through the years but none have pulled it off as well as Tracy. Here’s a couple of Top 10’ers together – the Nutcracker with Don Ho Ho Ho.
3. The Three Wise Men
Johnny Mateo makes two appearances in the SantaLar top ten as he, Miggie Sanchez and Erik Bakken celebrate the Crawl as the Three Wise Men. Not sure if that’s frankincense or myrrh in the glasses. The Wise Men have shown up at several Santa Crawls (with Elmer Perez and Erik Bakken occasionally swapping places). I believe the first was Santa Crawl 9 in 2012.
Here they are in a more recent picture but pretty much the same pose.
2. Olaf
I’m almost embarrassed to admit that I hadn’t a clue as to who this guy was supposed to be. I was blown away by the crowds that he attracted. Apparently I was the only guy on the planet who hadn’t seen the movie Frozen (I don’t have any kids so I have a legitimate excuse). The picture was published in a story that the CDT did on Santa Crawl 13 back in 2016. Brilliant idea by Brandon Yoder.
1. The Original Five Amigos.
Back in 2004, when we first started this thing, there were supposed to be a dozen or more of us. But only five showed up. These five will always have a special place in my heart. It’s going to be hard to bump them out of #1. Thank you (from left to right) Jeff Deitrich, yours truly, Johnny Mateo, Kevin Hodge, Brian Allen. Who woulda thought?
Honorable mentions
There were a bunch of others who warranted consideration but I just didn’t have room for them. They included
Kevin on a Stick
Brian Allen fashioned a stick head of Kevin Hodge so that he could semi-appear in out Three Amigo’s recreation of our original Five Amigos shot.
I Melted Frosty
From Santa Crawl 2. I have no idea who she is. In fact, she wasn’t even on the Crawl officially. We just kind of ran into her that night. I just loved her shirt.
Steeler Santa
Sorry Dave Krauth. I really wanted to include you but couldn’t figure out who to toss out.
Buddy the Elf
My problem probably was that I couldn’t choose between Jakob Pusateri and Bernie Punt as to who pulled if off the best.
Blitzen
After careful consideration I have determined that it was a real oversight on my part to leave Blitzen off of my original list. Undoubtedly, you’ve heard of that mythical beast, half man half horse called a Centaur (and what exactly is that half man half motorcycle in the insurance commercial called?). Now you can meet Bltzen, the half reindeer half linebacker (get it “blitz”en). My apologies to Helen Capparell, whose originality certainly deserves a place on this list.
Like many linebackers, Blitzen wants a shot a carrying the ball too.
The No Horse Open Sleigh
And as long as I’m expanding the list, let me add one more that probably should have been on the list even though it wasn’t actually a person. Much like the Mars Rover, the sleigh long outlived its design point For somewhere between 3-5 years, this sleigh managed to hold together despite getting hauled up and down Calder Alley numerous times.
I’m sure I’m missing some. Who’s in your top ten?
Town and Gown
Here’s a fantastic collective shot that I pulled together for a story that Town and Gown magazine did about the Crawl. Many of my favs make an appearance here.
