Why is Santa downing shots and singing naughty carols? Because SantaCon has come to town.

Santas trouped from one bar to the next around downtown Lexington Saturday night, jingling all the way.

“Come on, Santa,” they called to each other.

There were naughty carols to be sung and reindeer games to be played.

Lexington SantaCon had come to town.

SantaCon, a pub crawl in which participants dress as Santa (and sometimes elves, reindeer or other festive characters), has become a worldwide phenomenon.

Some SantaCon events raise money for charities. Lexington’s suggested a donation as part of the GoodGiving Challenge.

In some cities, Santas have been known to get a little rowdy after enjoying a little too much Christmas cheer. Ten people, including a woman accused of punching a police officer in the face, were arrested during “the first five hours” of SantaCon in Hoboken, N.J., NBC New York reported on Saturday.

Lexington’s SantaCon promised to be way more subdued, though by no means a silent night.

“SANTA!” Rachel Carpenter squealed, doing a little dance when she spied a life-size Santa figure in the window of George’s Deli on Limestone Street as the Santas moved from Lexington Beerworks to Henry Clay’s Public House.

Bars along the route were offering beer and drink specials.

John Spaulding tried out a Scrooge You (vodka, Triple sec, Southern Comfort, orange juice and orange ripple) at Henry Clay’s Public House.

Now that their daughter is grown, he said he and his wife Melinda Spaulding had been looking for “a different way to celebrate the season.”

“We’d been wanting to do a bar crawl in Lexington,” he said. “It does give you a chance to go places we haven’t been in a long time.”

Carpenter, who like most of the Lexington SantaCon participants preferred to be referred to as just “Santa,” said she attended a SantaCon in San Francisco (where SantaCon originated) years ago, and she wanted to bring that merriment to Lexington.

Around 2009, she and fellow Santa Heather Auman organized the first Lexington SantaCon, and they’ve kept the tradition going on and off since then.

“It’s an excuse to get dressed up,” Carpenter said. “It’s a great way to meet people.”

This story was originally published December 16, 2017 at 10:04 PM with the headline "Why is Santa downing shots and singing naughty carols? Because SantaCon has come to town.."