Santas on the Tube - Santacon London 2011

December 10th 2011: over a 1,000 Santas or Santae congregated in Central London (& other cities around the world) to celebrate Christmas in Santacon. I've blogged about Santacon a number of times in the past, but this was the first year I went along myself, dressed as Santa. It was really pleasing to see that large groups of people could still meet up & move around London without it turning into a riot, getting violent or an excuse for police kettling.



Here's my first sight of Santas en mass leaving Embankment Tube where we headed to Trafalgar Square, the lunchtime meeting point for Santacon.



Walking into Trafalgar Square you were faced with a sea of red with Santae swarming the whole square wearing some imaginative costumes






The atmosphere as like a carnival when we left Trafalgar Square and made our way to Piccadilly Circus. Even with masses of us in streets & when cars, motorbikes and buses were stuck in the Santae Jam, the drivers were good humoured as people gave them mince pies & sweets in the spirit of Christmas.

Highlights around that area included a Santaconga, trying to spot Where's Wally? & meeting Anonymous Santa outside of Boots



The Santa band of drummers were superb and kept everyone moving along, Santaconga'ing, dancing, chanting "What do we want? Christmas. When do we want it? Now! Hohooooooooooooooo!" & singing Xmas Songs like Jingle Bells & Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer.

The dancing continued into Carnaby Street and moved on to Argyll Street heading towards Oxford Street. We were stopped by a row of linked armed police from going onto Oxford Street, but instead of it turning nasty, we just carried on dancing & eventually turned round to head towards Bloomsbury.

@Jemimah_Knight and myself left at this point as we were freezing, tired and wanted to avoid the crush on the Tube home.



My full set of Flickr pictures from Santacon 2011 London are here & @Jemimah_Knight's here too.

I had a fab time and would certainly go again. Just remember to wrap up well, although a number of scantily clad "Lingerie Santas" were showing how Londoners can brave out the winter weather.

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Santacon 2010 - Santas on the London Underground
Signs of Christmas on the London Underground - Santacon 2009
Father Christmas(ses) on the Tube - SantaCon 2008
Santas on the Tube - Santacon 2007