In Photos: SantaCon 2014 lands sleigh in Asheville

SantaCon kicked off at The Wedge Brewing Company at 2 p.m. Photo by Hayley Benton.

Santa and his helpers have decided to take a break from the workshop and the cold of the North Pole today to merrily prance through downtown Asheville with the whole gang — reindeer and all.

SantaCon, an international gathering of Santas in more than 150 cities around the world, is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, having started in 1994 in San Francisco.

The Asheville event, held today, Saturday, Dec. 6, began with a meet-up at 2 p.m. for drinks at The Wedge Brewing Company. Xpress snapped some photos at the brewery before the Santas, Mrs. Clauses, reindeers and elves all headed off in various sleighs to meet up again downtown for some (more) drinks and merriment.

Here’s the officially unofficial schedule for the day from the Asheville SantaCon page, written by Facebook user Hobbit Hawes:

Here’s the game plan, and remember, Santa can go wherever Santa wants at any time, these are only suggestions, and be sure to read Santa Abi’s pinned post:

2 o’clock – Meet at the Wedge, food bins and collection jars for Manna and delicious beers for Santa are there.

4 o’clock – Vance monument for group pictures and shenanigans.

5 o’clock – tree lighting party at Ben’s tune up.

6 o’clock – tailgate party on top of the parking garage on Biltmore diagonally across form the Aloft hotel, next to the Diana Wortham.

8 o’clock – bar hopping in the North Lexington area (Tiger Mtn, maybe? or wherevs, lots of options)

10 o’clock – Back to Ben’s for a raging dance party with DJ Kipper and mead from Ivar. There is also a Manna barrel there.

2 o’clock – No one has stepped up to offer an after-party place yet. If you have one, please tell me about it.

The wee hours – call a cab back to the North Pole.

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About Hayley Benton
Current freelance journalist and artist. Former culture/entertainment reporter at the Asheville Citizen-Times and former news reporter at Mountain Xpress. Also a coffee drinker, bad photographer, teller of stupid jokes and maker-upper of words. I can be reached at hayleyebenton [at] gmail.com. Follow me @HayleyTweeet

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