San Francisco Santarchy, Ho, Ho, Ho!

If you read the previous post about the SF SWEA Christmas pageant, then just know that these pictures were taken on our way back to the car. As we were walking down the SF hills, we noticed an unusual number of people dressed like some version of Santa, joining in the walk. Big Santa meeting, was our first guess. As we got within sight of Civic Center, we could see clumps of red--with legs and arms. As we got closer we could see that multiple Santas, some stranger than others, were congregating in the square at Civic Center. Not knowing what we had chanced upon, I began taking pictures, hoping my camera battery would last just a little longer.

We later learned that this was the Santarchy event where over 1000 Santas met at Civic Center at 12:30pm and went pub crawling through the city "pubs". It seems by the pictures that a good time was had by all! We sure had some laughs and it was the other end of the scale that balanced out the sweetness and traditional Christmas pageant from the homeland with a rowdy spoof of tradition in San Francisco.



And a good time was had by all!

San Francisco SWEA Lucia Pageant

Attending the San Francisco Swedish Women's Education Association's Christmas Fair was a terrific way to begin the "Holidays". There is something about a large group of girls, dressed in white, carrying lighted candles, led by an older girl with a crown of candles on her head, singing beautiful songs in a foreign (to me) language, that is magical. . So I lied about the candles. Originally, in Sweden, they did carry and wear lighted candles but today the candles were cardboard with battery powered lights. Good thing, since some of them were carried at an angle and a couple of them were used as face scratchers on the way out. Of course, the playfulness of the younger children dressed like Tomkins in their red outfits, provided comic relief

Star Boys

Over 60 children ages 5 to 16 participated in the pageant and they were on the stage a long time. The pageant was presented three times in one day, so the younger children did get a little tired. A smaller number of boys were dressed in white with pointed hats that had big gold stars and quarter moons on them. It is my understanding that these are the Star Boys. I have no idea what all of that means.

Gingerbread "Men"

 At the end of procession were the Gingerbread Men who were dressed in costumes that I covet. If you couldn't smile after experiencing the Lucia Pageant, there is something seriously wrong.


The songs were lovely and especially so since they were sung in Swedish. Now I'm ready for Christmas!