Why is Santa wearing a gorilla mask?

And biker boots. It was all part of last weekend’s LA SantaCon, a holiday parade-pub crawl-party consisting of hundreds of people dressed as Santa wandering from Echo Park to Hollywood. The event got started at Echo Park Lake in a scene described in LA CityBeat:

“The gathering of the Santas at the boathouse was on a comedy level somewhere closer to the Firesign Theatre, as nearly 300 crowded the park. There were hippie, hipster and biker Santas; Santas in Lucha Libre and green gorilla masks; and some tall St. Nick with a star on his eye like Paul Stanley from KISS. All moved in cheery circles around red-suited and tinsel-daubed ladies, some of them too slinky and sexed-up for lap-sitting shifts at any department store.”

Sounds even more wild than an Atwater Christmas tree lighting ceremony

Photo: LA City Beat