Santas came by the hundreds, reindeer formed a kick line and oversized elves cavorted with saucy Mrs Clauses as a police helicopter circled overhead.
Welcome to SantaCon, the annual Christmas costume-parade-meets-pub-crawl that was hoping this year would persuade New York it's nicer than naughtier.
"Look out for your reindeer. Look out for your elves," organisers advised the crowd as Saturday's festivities began.
Before long, more than a thousand costumed revellers were off to bar-hop and make merry through Brooklyn and Manhattan.
Jessica Carr and Victoria Pirolli had turned themselves into snow globes, each encasing her head and torso in bubble-umbrella-like plastic, with a foam rubber base around the hips. The two science teachers from New Jersey said they were at their fifth SantaCon for the creativity, not the carousing.
Men dressed as a Santa drink at a bar called The Hall during the annual SantaCon pub crawl Source: Getty Images
"We have fun," Pirolli said. "We don't pee in bushes or anything."
Tracing its origins to a prankish, anti-consumerist gathering in San Francisco in 1994, SantaCon has mushroomed into events in hundreds of cities. New York's is generally the biggest, drawing thousands of people.
SantaCon claims the celebration takes place in 355 cities and 49 countries every year.
The event has also drawn criticism, particularly after the 2012 and 2013 celebrations generated two arrests, 85 summonses for disorderly conduct and other offences, and online videos of brawling St Nicks. Organisers say there were no arrests or summonses last year.
Pressured to clean up SantaCon's act, organisers began telling police their plans in 2013.
Still, a dozen city and state officials publicly aired concerns about potential bad behaviour. Police Commissioner William Bratton on Friday warned "anybody who wants to come into the city and raise hell dressed up as Santa Claus - we're not going to tolerate it," while NYPD Chief James O'Neill suggested the event was a burden at a time of heightened security concerns after attacks by extremists in Paris and elsewhere.
Hundreds of revelers take part in the holiday pub crawl, though some local bars and businesses have banned participants in an effort to avoid the typically rowdy SantaCon crowds.
"We are in trying times all throughout the world, and to have to expend more resources on an event like this, at times, it's frustrating," O'Neill said.
SantaCon's lawyer, Norman Siegel, said on Saturday the group aimed to self-police anyone who got out of line.
To four-time SantaCon-goer Michael Fincher, troubled times were an argument for the celebration, not against it.
"With what's going on in the world today, we need something lighter," said Fincher, a retail worker from Middlesex, New Jersey.
