While traveling through Cannery Row in Monterey, Ca on Saturday, December 7th, 2013 I found the beginning of the 2013 Monterey SantaCon.
Text from webste http://santacon.info/Monterey-CA/
SANTACON FAQ
Q: What is SantaCon?
A: SantaCon is your opportunity to be Santa!
Q: Is this some kind of political statement?
A: No. It’s fun and only fun.
Q: Who’s in charge?
A: Santa.
HOW IT BEGAN
The first SantaCon took place in San Francisco in 1994 and was sponsored by The San Francisco Cacophony Society.
The original inspiration came from an earlier SF adventure club called The Suicide Club who’s founder came up with the idea after reading an article about a Danish political who mobbed a Copenhagen Department store just before Christmas. However, the first American and all subsequent SantaCons around the world are non-political, purely surreal Santa prank events.
For more information about SantaCon, you can consult this Wikipedia article: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SantaCon