Rodney Dodig

On Saturday December 20th myself and a large group of friends met at Tres Hombres for the “First Annual Carbondale Santa Pub Crawl”. Everyone was in full Santa or Santa Helper regalia and it turned into quite an evening. We had hired a bus to take us from Bar to Bar so no driving on our part was involved.

Each person was to dress in some type of a theme (Traditional was acceptable) that they were to come up with. All the guys were a version of Santa and the Ladies were all Santa’s Helpers. I was dressed as Father Christmas (something traditional in the Scandinavian countries), there were a couple of Pimp Santas, a Duck Hunter Santa, a Commando Santa and several traditional Santas. The Ladies were all in very Sexy Santa Helper outfits and if there was a Mrs Claus I think she wouldn’t have let Santa out of the house with these girls.

The crawl started at Tres Hombres and as the crowd of participants grew in size the number of appreciative stares increased. Some people had their first cocktail here before Duck Hunter Santa used his Duck Call to signal it was time to head out to the bus and travel to the next Pub. A short ride later we were at Pinch Penny Pub for our first stop on the crawl. Watching the expression on every-one’s face as 20 plus people entered the bar “Ho Ho Hoing” and wishing everyone a Merry Christmas was great. We immediately dispersed and started handing out little presents to the customers from our Santa Bags. It was a nice surprise for all the customers and they were all very appreciative of the thought. Lots of us had brought cameras so there was a lot of picture taking with flashes going off all evening.

The Duck Call sounded again and it was off to our next stop, the infamous “PK’s”. Once again the looks of amazement on everyone’s face was a sight to behold as the line of Santas and Santa’s helpers entered the bar. Once again the patrons delighted in the small gifts we were handing out. Standing back and looking at the crowd it seemed there was a sea of Red Velvet Suits and smiling faces. The music was good and you would occasionally catch a few of us dancing to the tunes. Our crowd also seemed to enjoy this bar the most. All too soon the Duck call sounded and we were off to our next stop.

We all marched out of PKs and decided to walk to the next stp since it was only a 1/2 block away. “The Cellar” was our next port of call. The walk there was exciting in itself. People in cars passing us had that surprised look on their faces as they drove by and there were lots of “Honks” and Merry Christmases being sent our way. Some even gave little gifts to the people stopped at the red light. Trooping downstairs into the Cellar as in all the other Bars we were greeted with looks of amazement and disbelief. More presents were handed out to “Thanks You’s” and “Merry Christmas Santa”. We far outnumbered the patrons at most of the bars we went to so I am sure that our presence was appreciated by the owners also. The Duck Call sounds again and we all trooped out to the bus for the journey to the next bar.

The next stop was to a bar outside of Carbondale called “Midland Inn”. Here we definitely outnumbered the patrons as there were only about 10 people in the bar. Still there was hat look of disbelief and then joy as we all trooped in. Once again “Ho Ho Hoing” and wishing all a Merry Christmas. Drinks were ordered and food for those that were hungry to share. More dancing to good music and revelry by all. Here we finally got the group picture while everyone was still in a state to look good. I think this was the least favorite stop of the groups as there was a difficult time ordering the food. Still everyone was laughing and having a good time here too and soon enough the Duck Call sounded again and it was back on the bus for the trip back into town and our next stop.

Next on the tour was a bar called “Key West” and it was by far the most crowded. We still had the same response as we entered and handed out presents. There was a live band here so obviously there was some dancing going on, myself included. Cyndi dragged me out for a twirl or two, it was a lot of fun. We were far outnumbered here but everyone was happy to see us. Everyone mingled as it seemed everyone knew someone here. All too soon though the Duck Call was sounded and we were back on the bus for the return to Tres Hombres and the end of our evening.

This little adventure was more fun than I thought it would be. Everyone was in a jovial mood and stayed in the spirit of Christmas for the entire evening. At every bar as we left the patrons applauded and wished us a Merry Christmas. It really was a great evening. They are planning to do this again next year so to any who read this, if you would like to join please send an E-mail to the following address and we will include you in the invitation with the planned date and time of the 2009 Santa Pub Crawl. Keep coming back, I will be adding more pictures for the next couple of weeks.

cdalesantacrawl@yahoo.com

Merry Christmas Everyone!