Saturday marked the end of the road for the 25-year-old beast that is Santa Claus Pub Crawl for Charity.
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But fear not, there will be even more scantily clad santas, elves and angels next year.
The popular event added 19 venues in 2018 and next year it will merge into SantaFest – a three-day Santa-themed festival catering for young and old alike.
Neil Webster - who started the pub crawl with a group of friends to bring real Christmas cheer and raise funds for charity in the process - was a happy man as he surveyed the throng of party-goers at North Wollongong Hotel on Saturday.
“We just started it to have a bit of fun trying to change people’s Christmas spirit and it has grown into the massive beast that it is today,” Webster said.
“Some 25 years later we’ve got 20 venues involved, we are expecting over 11,000 this year and it just keeps growing and growing.
“Over the next two years we are morphing into a three-day event called SantaFest.
“The pub crawl will be the linchpin of that but we will have a couple of events either side of that.
“You can see how popular this event is not only here in the Illawarra, but throughout the country.
“We also get a lot of backpackers from the UK who come down just for the Santa Pub Crawl.
“It’s an easy event to enjoy....who doesn’t enjoy the chance to dress up and spread a bit of Christmas cheer.
“Us organisers also get a lot of pleasure from the fact we are raising funds for much needed charities.”
The event raised more than $125,000 for charity in 2017.