The popular annual event - which ballooned to a whopping 5500 people last year - was named alongside a number of international favourites, including Boston’s historic Freedom Trail pub crawl and London’s Monopoly board pub crawl, which takes revellers to 26 streets and stations featured in the game.

Tokyo’s karaoke crawl, a time-travelling fictional bar crawl and the Minneapolis-based zombie crawl, a 6000-strong pub crawl for the undead, were also on the list compiled by the ninemsn website.

Coming in at No9 on the ‘‘pub crawl bucket list’’, the Santa Claus Pub Crawl was described as bringing ‘‘the joyous Christmas spirit to the pub crawl scene with festive fancy dress and seasonal cheer galore’’.

Organiser Neil Webster, who started the crawl with just 15 mates almost 19 years ago, was thrilled to be recognised among some of the biggest and best events in the world.

‘‘It was a shock - a friend of mine sent it through to me on Saturday morning and it was obviously a bit unexpected,’’ Mr Webster said.

‘‘Although we like to think we’re a great pub crawl, I didn’t know we’d be recognised as one of the 10 best in the world.

‘‘Just to be ranked among those pub crawls [is an honour] because they’re all international, they’re all of a larger scale and they’re held in larger cities.’’

The Wollongong event, which raised almost $50,000 for the Salvation Army last year, has become more successful each year - something Mr Webster attributed to a mix of good planning and good people.

‘‘Besides being a charity event it is all about having some fun and getting into the Christmas spirit,’’ he said.

‘‘So people come along knowing they’re not there to get drunk or to let loose, it’s more a chance to catch up with friends, dress up, and have a great time.’’

This year’s Santa Claus Pub Crawl is scheduled for Saturday, December 8.