Photo: QueensPost
Dec. 14, 2012 By Christian Murray
Hundreds of Santas are going to be lining the streets of Sunnyside next Saturday as they participate in the neighborhood’s first ever Santathon/pub-crawl.
Ten bars along—or near—Queens Blvd are putting on the festive event, where attendees will go from bar-to-bar being offered $3 drinks. Participants will be required to pay $10 for a wristband and wear a Santa costume (or at least a Santa hat) to participate.
The pub crawl will begin at 1:00 pm and go until late. Participants are able to begin their journey at any of the bars but must follow the order of Santa’s route. That order is: Bar 43; PJ Horgan’s; Maggie Mae’s; Arriba Arriba; The Courtyard; Bliss Street Station; Sidetracks; McGuinness Bar, The Gaslight and Molly Bloom’s.
The $10 wrist bands can be bought at any of the bars—from now until the time of event. The proceeds will be donated to three local children’s charities.
Nick Murphy, the co-owner of Bar 43 & Grill, said that more than 360 people have said they would participate in the Dec. 22 event—through Facebook. “We really want this to be a big event.”
The bars have been talking about getting together and organizing pub crawls like these for some time. However, a recent charitable event put on by the local bars & restaurants for the victims of Sandy (RUSH), helped reignite the idea.
“It’s a case of having 10 bars–each with their own marketing power–and combining them for a great community event as well as charity,” Murphy said.
The 10 bars participating in the Santathon are in the midst of forming a collective group called Sunnyside Boulevard Bars. The group has had three meetings and is likely to have monthly meetings going forward—as a means to promote the neighborhood and events.
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29 Comments
@ Jemma What a sad commentary.
T- you’re right, my bad! Santacon was last saturday so I figured it was the same day! Oh well I get woken up by loud drunks all the time anyway it’s part of living in sunnyside! 🙂
I think it sounds like fun and it’s raising money for Toys for Tots, so that parents without so much can have Santa visit their kids too. What’s wrong with that?
I used to do the SantaCon in the city before it got way too big and fratty and kids thought it was a hoot! A lot of us brought little toys and candy canes in a bag to give to them.
Wrong Saturday Jemma. It’s the 22nd.
Sorry but I live by the blvd, was out and about all day and night on saturday and I can’t say I ran into ANY drunk santas or even heard them. I’m sandwiched in between several of the bars. I hear people screaming and carrying on all the time but this one time I didn’t! LOL It raised money for a good cause didn’t it?
The difference is that we understood what Super Witty Smitty was saying. But he’s correct, Spelling School and Ballet School are not proper nouns 🙂
You got me, Elizabeth! I’m an English teacher, too! Can’t help it.
My biggest beef is commenters who criticize others’ grammar while screwing up correlative conjunctions (“neither…or”), beginning sentences with the word “But,” and leaving out apostrophes when using possessive pronouns (someones).
Bear in mind that neither Spelling School or Ballet School are proper nouns and should not be capitalized. But I agree, some of the posts are a chore to comprehend. My biggest beef are ellipses…like trying to read someones random thoughts.
I think we need a Nail Salon Crawl!
Spelling School–hahahaha! It would make it easier to understand what people are talking about.
As far as the concern about kids seeing “drunk Santas” on the street–first, you can explain that they aren’t REAL Santas. He’s at the North Pole and so on. Second, there were plenty of children out with their parents in Manhattan on Saturday during Santa-Con (a similar event) and it seems that everyone survived. And, what makes anyone think that children won’t be out after 5 pm? Maybe in 1975, but these days people seem to be keeping their kids up and out until all hours based on what I saw in Manhattan over the weekend.
Also, they will be drinking indoors. Sure you may see some stumbling around on the street. A younger child can simply be told the “Santa” is not feeling well, an older child will know and maybe will think twice about getting into similar trouble.
By midnight those Santas were yelling and being belligerent all the way from Queens Boulevard to Skillman and 39th.
In a few short years Santacon has become catnip for the lousiest people in NYC. I was sorry to see our bars pursue their business. I was annoyed to see how drunk and aggressive they became on the streets.
Can someone tell me whether it would legal to open a Spelling School at the location where the Ballet School wanted to open? Good cheer to all the Santas and naysayers alike.
Can I tell u people who are so negative about the santathon a few FACTS? There was $1500 dollars of toys dropped off on Friday nite to 3 local charity’s . They were being divided equally between the 108 precincts community party yesterday for under priveliged kids in the 108 district, st Theresa’s parish and st Raphael’s parish. Today another truck of toys has been delivered to the orphanage in Brooklyn and another truck of toys has been delivered to the rockaways. These toys hav been bought from people’s personal money in anticipation of having a big turnout on Saturday. So instead of all the negativity from the people who comment on this age how about a little appreciation shown to the people who hav done this. This s the 1 st event that these bars hav put together and they hope to do many more good things for the residents ( adults and kids) in the near future. The boys and girls club is on top of their list. United we stand Divided we fall. Happy Christmas everyone.
It is called Holiday Cheer, for a reason! Which it seems that most of the above need. You want your business to do well then go ahead and promote it! These owners are trying! Good for them! If you get involved in your community you will find that it is about going around and saying hello and Happy Holidays not about getting drunk. These folks are talking about making our town better and more inviting, well be positive not negative. 1:00pm lets the crowd see what other things are around while they are open, not closed and gated up.
PR
Rather than take offense at holiday trees and retailers who refuse to acknowledge the Christian aspects of the holiday as they try to sell us useless junk, we should focus on the things that really corrupt this holiday: Santa, Frosty, and Rudolph. These cartoon characters represent Christmas at its most artificial level. (We should get rid of the Easter Bunny, too.) There are so many nice traditions that have to do with this time of year and I think if we stick to the good stuff, it won’t be so annoying and loaded with stress.
Ruber I agree with you this is terrible for our town ..what is this saying what kind of a message is this for all the rest of the business in our area… we need a complete town marketing program where all our business partake in a venue and make money and bring our town together
How about joing our boys and girls club and getting invoved with ourkids and our parents and keepoing our kids afe… we do have aboys and girls club at p.s.199 when not go there from 6-9 during the week and check it out and get with a great program for our kids only $25 for the years…
What next? A pub crawl of Baby Jesuses on Christmas Day?
Who drinks at 1pm? who wants kids to see drunk santas? who comes up with these terrible ideas? is this the community coming together? That’s the best you got??????
What about the other business in our town that need pubicity why is it that only the bars that make peiple drunk get toghers what about our who communty doing a marketing project together… I thoght that was the purpose of bid…. it should be all our business not just the bars… like skillman project it is all the business..
@Tampa Bay I didn’t say don’t do it, I just suggested it wouldn’t be great to have drunk Santas on our streets while kids are out. Otherwise, have a ball. Life is about negotiation. Don’t slap back, talk back, we can come to an understanding.
Good one 86Mets
get a life you angry small minded people
Boulevard of Death meets pub crawl.
What could possibly go wrong?
4 comments from 4 people who are simply unhappy with their lives. There’s been plenry bars in Sunnsydie/Woodside way before you moved into the neighborhood, pehaps you would rather have another Dollar Store in their places.
I’m not sure I want my kids seeing hordes of drunken Santas around the neighborhood. Can you move the hours up, say 5pm on? At least the little kids won’t be out then.
just what we need more drunks on the streets — ho ho ho
Hope Santa doesn’t vomit on the reindeer! Ho. ho, ho!
“Hundreds of Spoiled Self-Important People to partake in Sunnyside pubcrawl”
FTFY