If you want to mark yourself “Safe From SantaCon,” you’ll want to avoid the bars on Saturday, and once again, some hucksters are out pushing $30 tickets to this event that is actually free and completely unorganized.  

The naughty list will surely grow by magnitudes on Saturday, as the “bearded Bay To Breakers” SantaCon is Saturday, December 10, starting at 12 noon at Union Square, and then spawning soggy, shitfaced Santas in every direction all over town until the last one is thrown out of whatever bar they settle into. Consider yourself warned!

SFist broke the story last year that a rival “Sexy” SantaCon was charging $20 to attend this event, which we should clarify is free to attend and always has been. Did those shysters learn their lesson? Heck no! In fact, they’ve upped it to $30.

A website called SanFranciscoSantaCon.com is billing “Nationwide Sexiest Santas” (????) and has a ticket page, where tickets are $29.99. While there are more affordable ticket tiers, these are currently all listed as “Sold Out!” Did people actually fall for this? Or are these hucksters just creating the illusion that there was tremendous demand for this scammy deal?

And I hate to rain on your parade of horribles, but it’s looking like rain on SantaCon Saturday, according to SFGate. “Between Friday evening and 10 a.m. Saturday, the city is predicted to receive a quarter inch of rain,” per SFGate. “Another 0.75 inch of rain is forecast to dump between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m., the height of the SantaCon party,”

If you do decide to brave this thing, remember that it’s not just a puke-and-cry pub crawl, it’s also a charitable toy drive. On the official event page, organizer Tom DiBell says “Please bring a new, unwrapped toy for the San Francisco Fire Department Toy Drive!!!”

The abominable snowman known as SantaCon did regrettably originate here in San Francisco. It dates back to 1994, first  organized by the anarchist-prankster collective called the Cacophony Society. It grew in size, and to cities across the world. The original organizers grew dissatisfied with the increasingly large crowds’ loutish behaviors, and even declared SantaCon dead in 2014. But the new organizers have taken up the Santa mantle, and I suppose this event will appeal to some of you.

But people, do not pay $30! This a free event, for Baby Jesus’s sakes.

Related: Bars To Avoid Like The Plague During Santacon On Saturday Because It's The Actual Plague [SFist]

Image: (Getty Images) Annual SantaCon (Santa Claus Convention) in San Francisco. SantaCon is a spontaneous mass gathering of people dressed in Santa Claus costumes parading publicly on streets and in bars in cities around the world. The focus is on spontaneity and creativity, while having a good time and spreading cheer and goodwill. The tradition was started in 1994 in San Francisco by the Suicide Club (at the time it was called 'Santarchy'). It was later adopted by the Cacophony Society as SantaCon. Other keywords: flash mob, event, costumes, street performance, red, Christmas spirit, crowd, group, many people.