Calling all Santas!

Believe it or not, Christmas is only a few weeks away, so Guangzhou organizers are getting set to spread some Christmas beer cheer.

Later this week there are two Santa Pub Crawls. Buses teaming with Santas will be hitting the streets Friday and Saturday, and later this month a third one will be sponsored by Tiger Beer, but no details are available yet.

The first Santa crawl will be this Friday (December 7). It’s the 9th Annual Crawl for this event, organized by members of the Australian Consulate, so you’ll be sure to meet some nice Aussies there! As usual, it begins at The Paddy Field, but this time it’s at the new location, in the Oakwood Building.

I’ve been on this crawl for the past two years, and it’s always a great time. Lots of activities, great people, and I’ll definitely be there again this year. It will set you back RMB150 per ticket but includes free flow drinks!

The second crawl, SantaCon 2012, is organized by a group which has hosted similar events in Beijing.  It will be on Saturday, and organizers say it will be an all-day event. Saturday is also SantaCon Day all around the world, and is apparently celebrated in over 250 cities worldwide.

This one gets underway at noon and ends at 3am (that’s right, the next morning! Pace yourselves…) The initial meeting point is Sleeping Wood Cafe in Haizhu. The event route and details will be announced only the NIGHT BEFORE the event, so stay alert. It also has a few more rules… participants MUST dress up. No lazy bones!

If you don’t have a suit or can’t find one, no need to worry: organizers say they’ll provide places to get suits and costumes for less than RMB40.

One thing I like about this event is there is no ticket charge, but it also means there is no shared transportation or deals on drinks, food, etc. (Although this may change the night before!)

Its really dressing up only for the sake of dressing up… which if you ask me, is pretty cool.