What do you get when you mix the holidays, a cool city, lots of bars, a few friends, and about nine hours to kill?
Why, the Hoboken SantaFest Pub Crawl, naturally.
The crawl – which is now in its 11th year – will take place Saturday, Dec. 18 beginning at 1 p.m. Like many institutions, it started small and grew with time. Christmas shoppers, dog walkers, and the stroller crowd may be surprised to see a deployment of 250 red Santa suits zigzagging the streets of the city.
This isn’t your kid cousin’s college pub crawl.
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‘Catch up with old friends, meet new people’
Ironically, the Mile Square SantaFest was born because two Hoboken residents moved away.
“Our SantaFest is more like a reunion. It actually came about because two of my other friends – Mike Coady and Bob DiProspero – were leaving Hoboken. Mike moved to Connecticut and Bob bought a condo in New York City,” said pub crawl co-founder Dave Pard, who lives in Delaware.
“They had been living in Hoboken, and I would go up to visit every so often. But when they moved away, they wanted something to do to come back and see everybody. One of my friends had done the D.C. SantaFest and we liked the idea. So, that’s how it started. Then it expanded to what it is today, which is a holiday event that gets people together.”
Since 1999, when the Hoboken fest began, members of the original core group “have moved around,” Pard said, as school, jobs, and new family commitments have demanded. But many of them still return to Hoboken each year for SantaFest. This year, for example, Coady will be traveling all the way from San Francisco to be here for the pub crawl.
As the pub crawl’s reputation grew, so too did the crowds. The fest now includes celebrants beyond Pard’s circle of friends. The event is open to anyone who wants to participate.
Twenty-five people attended the inaugural SantaFest; as of last week, 250 people had already RSVPed through Facebook. Holiday revelers are welcome to join the fun at anytime during the pub crawl and are free to take off whenever they need to go.
“It a great way to catch up with old friends or meet new people,” said Pard. “It’s just a relaxed, fun time.”
Pard said he wasn’t aware of any love matches or amazing business ventures that grew out of a shared Sam Adams at McSwiggans during the pub crawl. But that doesn’t mean it couldn’t happen.
“I guess anything’s possible,” he said.
Nine hours, nine bars
This year the fun will begin, as it has in the past, promptly at 1 p.m. at Stinky Sullivan’s Bar & Grill, at 600 Washington St.
The ensuing hours will include stops at Farside, the Village Pourhouse, Oddfellows, Wicked Wolf, and other well-known spots in town.
Pard expects the crawl to wind down at around 10 p.m.
Despite the inherent nature of the event, Pard insists the pub crawl isn’t about getting drunk and puking on the sidewalk while your friend holds back your hair. And, yes, people do eat along the way.
“People may stop at pizza places along the way,” said Pard, “or when we get to places like Oddfellows later in the afternoon they’ll order food. I’ve even met a lot of people who come and don’t even drink. They’ll drink water or sodas and just come to hang out at the event. This isn’t necessarily a ‘drinking event.’ ”
Folks who plan to come late, Pard said, shouldn’t have a hard time finding the group. Last week he was still finalizing the schedule of bars. A schedule will be posted on the group’s Facebook page. Pard will print out copies of the schedule, which will be broadly distributed and posted in public areas around town on Dec. 18.
And, of course, latecomers can always follow that sea of red Santa suits.
What the uninitiated should know
One of the few loose requirements of the event is that participants wear something in the spirit of the holidays. Since the crawl is called “SantaFest,” the attire of Kris Kringle is strongly encouraged. But the group is also open to reindeer antlers, menorahs, and other similar fun dress. (However, no one is kicked out for wearing regular street clothes.)
And the organizers expect crawlers to have fun – responsibly.
SantaFest, Pard emphasized, “doesn’t promote boozing it up and causing trouble. We’ve been able to stay under the radar mainly because, in the 10 years we’ve done it so far, there haven’t been any problems. We’re not causing any trouble. We don’t want any trouble.”
In other words, this isn’t your kid cousin’s college pub crawl.
“It’s kind of silly fun. But I will say this,” Pard added, “It has kept a lot of friendships going.”
E-mail E. Assata Wright at awright@hudsonreporter.com.