'Just dorks about Christmas': Annual SantaCon pub crawl coming Dec. 11 to downtown Lakeland

Megan Lewman and Bethany Reycraft consider themselves big nerds about Christmas. Both have December birthdays with Lewman being a Christmas baby and Reycraft’s middle name is a variation of Noel.

And for the past two years, Lewman and Reycraft have been the coordinators for SantaCon, an annual Christmas-themed bar-crawl event through downtown Lakeland that will take place Dec. 11 this year.

“It’s a labor of love. We’re just dorks about Christmas. It’s festive and it’s just something we love,” Lewman added.

Lewman attended her first SantaCon in 2016, when it was organized by Robert Wagner, after seeing a flyer on Facebook. After the first year, she started helping plan the pub crawl event.

“I said, ‘Hey I'm a big nerd about Christmas and I love this event, but I think it would be more fun if there were more participants,’” Lewman said. “I basically begged him to let me help, and he did.”

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Lewman, 39, took over the event two years ago after Wagner moved. She said there were about 20 people in attendance her first year, and last year there were close to 200 participants.

In previous years, attendees would visit the same bar at the same time. But as the event grew – and COVID-19 took hold last year – Lewman and Reycraft, 34, decided to change the format.

“Rather than bombard each bar, we made a checklist of bars, and everyone can go at their own pace,” Lewman said.

The new format allowed for more attendees and more local bars to participate.

“That was a really great way to get the whole downtown involved,” Reycraft said.

In addition to loving everything Christmas, both women said they love to support local businesses. Lewman owns The Juice Box Café and Galaxy Retro Arcade & Bar. When she tasked herself with continuing SantaCon, she asked Reycraft, who is the marketing director at the Florida West Coast La-Z-Boy Furniture Galleries, for help.

“It’s a match made in SantaCon heaven,” Reycraft said.

At the kickoff, there will be a costume contest and a flip-cup game with beer sponsored by Swan Brewing. Santa and Mrs. Claus costumes are not the only ones to be worn.

“An ugly sweater and a hat will work. Just something festive. You’ll see everything from traditional Santas to — we had this gentleman dress up as a sexy elf last year,” Reycraft said. “One of my favorites was the white witch from Narnia.”

Even though bars are participating, those who do not drink alcohol are encouraged to dress up and participate.

“In order to get the passport stamped, you just have to spend money at the bar. Even if it’s a bottle of water because we don’t want to promote overconsumption, but we do want to encourage people to fund and support local businesses,” Lewman said.

The kickoff will begin at 5 p.m. at Swan Brewing at 111 W. Pine St. in Lakeland. Passports can be turned in to any participating bar. Once Reycraft and Lewman collect the passports, they will be entered into a drawing. For more information, visit www.lkldsantacon.com.

With growing participation, the duo plans make it a charitable event.

“We’re hoping for the future that we will be able to turn this into a community event to benefit a local charity,” Reycraft said.

If you go

WHAT: SantaCon

KICKOFF EVENT: 5-7 p.m., Swan Brewing, 111 W. Pine St. (pick up tour maps)

• 6:15 p.m.: Costume Contest.

• 6:45 p.m.: Flip-Cup game with beer.

• 7 p.m.: Annual Santa Chain Gang Walk across South Florida Avenue.

Have participating bars stamp the passports. A purchase at the bar is required, but not an alcoholic beverage purchase. Passports can be turned in at any participating bar for entry into the raffle.

MOR INFORMATION: www.lkldsantacon.com

Breanna Rittman writes news features for The Ledger. Send your feature ideas to BRittman@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on The Ledger: Lakeland SantaCon has grown in recent years as event format has changed