Miss Santas

Last weekend we went to NYC for anniversary celebrations and early Christmas. For the last few years we have been fortunate to have our trip coincide with Santa Con or Santa Convention. The premise is that young professionals take a Saturday before Christmas and celebrate . Somehow this has become a national celebration coordinated in most major cities of the US. NYC seems to have the best because of the ease of mass transportation. This year seemed to be the largest that we have viewed as all areas of Midtown was filled with hundreds of young men and women dressed for Christmas. The event in NYC was threatened to be cancelled this year because of such bad behavior last year, but the story goes that the participants raised $14,000 in 2011 for charity. I don't know how they raised money but it had to do with patronizing the bars. It seems that Santa Con is a massive pub crawl for young professionals, both men and women. Grand Central Station was awash with every variety of Christmas attire as the young celebrants converged by subway. There were Santas, elves, Miss Santas , and even GingerBread cookies. The most common element was that all were enjoying themselves,  mostly aided by containers of alcohol. As the day progressed they got happier and louder. We saw hundreds in Times Square cavorting to Christmas music. One comely lady was wearing a hat made of a fringed lampshade. There was a new "Naked Cowboy" who was about a foot shorter than the real , original Naked Cowboy. This one was a Latin man accompanied by a Naked Cowgirl.An original idea we hadn't seen in Kentucky were Salvation Army Bell ringers dancing to Motown music as they rang their bells. Only in the Big Apple. One drunken Santa stepped aside for Sandy and I as we exited the subway turnstile. I said,"Thanks Santa" and he said "you Know it".One group of young men came staggering down the sidewalk on 44th street as we were waiting in line for "Rock of Ages". They were wearing plaid pajamas and dirty Santa Caps. Obviously three sheets in the wind , you could smell the alcohol half a block away. Loud and boisterous as they were, they didn't create a disturbance. All in all it was a very interesting way to spend a Saturday in Manhattan. I had seen pub crawls on St. Patricks Day on Folly Beach, but even drunken girls in bikinis couldn't compete with Santa Con. The weather was extraordinarily warm and the food at the New York Luncheonette was as good as always. The hotel staff was not a disappointment as they were as aloof and haughty as always. What do you expect for $400 a night?? The cab rides were as terrifying as we have come to expect, and Central Park was full of people sightseeing or skating at Wolman Rink, Trump's name on everything. It was in fact the New York we go to see. The huge tree in Rockefeller Center was the prettiest I've seen in years and crowds were as huge as ever. It seems the recession doesn't affect Manhattan. Leave Lexington on a little jet and touch down at LaGuardia in one hour and twenty minutes. From race horse farms to drunken pretty Santa Maids in 80 minutes. What a Life!Viva NYC.