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In-Santa-Cide
From a commercial point of view, if Christmas did not exist it would be necessary to invent it.
-- Katharine Whitehorn
Sunday, December 21, 1997
I got up early (for a Sunday) to finish the work on my "Mrs. Santa" costume for Wally's In-Santa-Cide event.
Most of the work went towards a really neat baton with a Santa head totem on it, for me to carry. I took a two-foot PVC pipe and wrapped it in a green ribbon, then fastened the soft-scupture Santa head to the end. I made three tassels of tinsel, decorating them with bows of red and gold ribbon; but I only used two, attaching them to either side. I added some small bells on the ends of pieces of star wire garland. I glued some fake holly and glittery foliage to the back of Santa's head. The final touch: some long, curved, black feathers in his cap.
I made a rosette of white lace and added fake holly and another one of the red and gold bows, and some of the same black feathers that I gave Santa. This rosette I attached to my red fleece and white lace mobcap, to cover the place where the elastic didn't quite meet. This linked the Santa stick to my costume, and the dark feathers gave us that touch of the "dark side" needed for this Anti-commercialism event.
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I took the bus down to the appointed meeting place, under the clock at the Pike Place Market. Becca and a new guy, Eric, were already there. After they made an excusion to get lattes, we waited for Wally. And waited. At fifteen minutes after the time we were supposed to start, Becca gave Wally a call on her cellphone. He was lazing around the apartment (or was he at brunch? I don't know.) because all of us had neglected to give him a confirming phone call or email, as he had requested.
So he and his friend Linda came down and fetched us up to his high-rise apartment, where they got into their Santa gear and shared some costume pieces with Eric and Becca. From there, we went back off to the Market.
My basic procedure for the whole afternoon: pick a person from the crowd, go up close to zir, and ask intimately if zie has been naughty or nice. If zie says "Nice," ask zir to please, think again. (It's that "Naughty" answer we are looking for.) Then give zir a piece of candy. Fun! The jingling bells on my Santa stick made things more festive, and helped us keep the group together.
After a tour through the Market, we took the bus to Broadway and went rampaging through many stores. We finally took a beverage break at Ileene's Sports Bar. From there we went back downtown and through Gameworks, FAO Schwartz, and Nordstroms. We made several candy-purchasing stops along the way.
This whole event was a lot of fun, even with our small group. But we didn't do the epater le bourgeousie stuff that is a major feature of the Santa Anarchy in other cities. Seattle people are just too nice, and we weren't drinking as they have done in other places. I had more fun just urging people to admit to being "naughty", then giving them positive reinforcement for it in the form of candy.
So now I hope we can look forward to many fun events sponsored by Wally!
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