Ho-Ho-Horrible: Booze, Arrests, DWIs At Hoboken SantaCon

HOBOKEN, NJ — Many residents hate it. Hoboken officials have cracked down on it. But SantaCon keeps returning for the holidays and bringing waves of arrests along for the ride.

For the past several years, hordes of revelers – many clad in Santa Claus outfits or other holiday apparel – have swarmed to Hoboken for the annual SantaCon pub crawl, which took place at 11 bars across the city on Saturday this year.

Here’s how the event’s organizers described the 2019 pub crawl:

“Picture thousands of Santas and inebriated elves running wild through the streets of Hoboken and gaining access to some of the best bars you can imagine - that's exactly what you'll see on Saturday, Dec. 7 in Hoboken.”

The privately organized event, which is not sanctioned by Hoboken, sees hundreds of participants. Many of them are respectful and law-abiding. But every year there are several people that go overboard and get arrested, police say.

According to the Hoboken Police Department, this year’s arrests included:

• A 26-year-old Sparta resident allegedly accosted police officers after they saw him smoking marijuana. He was accused of pushing a cop, refusing to let officers handcuff him and biting a Union City police officer on the hand.
• A 29-year-old Ewing resident was accused of urinating in a residential garage on 1st Street.
• A 30-year-old Bayonne resident was charged with DWI and other offenses after he allegedly drove the wrong way on a street near Basils Pizzeria.
• A 34-year-old Clark resident was charged with DWI after being stopped near 1st and Washington streets.
• A 31-year-old Philadelphia resident was charged with DWI after allegedly blowing through a stop sign on Garden Street.
• A 24-year-old Dayton resident was charged with DWI after police allegedly spotted a car swerving on Newark Street.
• A 27-year-old Bayonne resident was charged with DUI and marijuana possession after police stopped him in a car on Garden Street.
• A 23-year-old Jersey City resident was charged with a marijuana-based DWI offense after police spotted a car at a stop sign on 4th Street that wasn’t moving.

Public safety preparations began well in advance of the pub crawl.

Two days before the event, NJ Transit officials warned SantaCon attendees not to bring alcohol aboard trains, light rail vehicles and buses on Dec. 7.

“This policy will be strictly enforced,” NJ Transit officials said.

On Saturday, as inspectors with the Hoboken Fire Department scoped out possible code violations at the bars such as overcrowding and blocked entryways, the city’s police force hit the streets.

Hoboken Police Chief Ken Ferrante provided a running account of the night’s activity on Twitter.

Ferrante also rolled his eyes at organizers, who billed the pub crawl as a “charity event” and asked attendees on the event website to “bring new toys or donations to help a child in need this holiday season.”

“How many Santas, Mrs. Clauses and elves do you see getting off the trains in Hoboken or standing in bar lines with presents for underprivileged children?” he rhetorically questioned, adding the hashtags #falsenarrative and #SantaConcashgrab.

The taxpayers of Hoboken were hit with a bill of nearly $75,000 for police coverage due to the annual SantaCon, not counting HPU or sanitation costs, Ferrante said.

Other Hoboken elected officials weighed in about this year’s SantaCon on social media.

While local officials have blasted the annual pub crawl, some attendees have painted a rosier picture of the overall scene seen during SantaCon.

“It’s a great atmosphere,” a partygoer told ABC New York. “Everyone’s hanging out… it’s Christmas time… everyone’s happy.”

But despite the "great atmosphere," at least one local establishment tried its best to avoid any association with the event.

"Ho, Ho, Ho, No, No, No," one bar wrote online. "We are not part of the con today."

The "SantaCon" concept was also recently mocked by John Oliver on his show, Last Week Tonight.

"Arrested during SantaCon in Hoboken, New Jersey," the former Daily Show pundit joked. "That might be literally the saddest sentence in existence."

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