SantaCon: how a surrealist prank became a global red-suited pub crawl

Our friends at Laughing Squid have shared filmmaker Steve Bustin’s new documentary on SantaCon, tracing how a small San Francisco art prank snowballed into an international, booze-fueled holiday ritual.

The documentary, which was was directed by Seth Porges of Class Action Park and How To Rob a Bank, takes the audience back the early days of Santacon with footage by Scott Beale (Portland 1996, Los Angeles 1997 and New York City 1998), Chuck Cirino (San Francisco 1995 and Los Angeles 1997), Harrod Blank (New York City 1998) and others who were there from the very beginning.

The documentary also features interviews with the event’s founder Rob Schmidt, Laughing Squid partner John Law, Marci MacFarlane, Chuck Palahniuk, and the late, greatly missed Chris Radcliffe, as well as many others involved with organizing the original Santacon events.

Santacon will premiere at the DOC NYC documentary film festival, with screenings on November 13th and 15th, 2025, followed by a Q&A after each screening. Tickets are now available for purchase.

Laughing Squid

Imagined and brought into being by the San Francisco Cacophony Society, SantaCon is one of our favorite holiday traditions and comes in second only to Krampusnacht.

Previously:
• SantaCon 2011: Naked Santas World Record
• SantaCon 2010: Santas Gone Wild
• Profile of culture jammer John Law
• Coming to LA: Krampusfest!, from the remains of the Cacophony Society