SantaCon 2022 Overtakes NYC As Rowdy Residents Dress as Saint Nick

It's that time of the year again ... where New Yorkers get in the spirit and dress up as old Saint Nick for a massive bar crawl throughout the city -- and 2022 didn't disappoint.

The streets of Manhattan were packed Saturday morning with thousands of people who threw on their best fat man fits and Santa hats ... all just to parade around, sing Christmas carols and drink to their hearts' desire, and some of these photos truly capture the magic.

While a majority of folks opted for the traditional red and white getup ... some got creative and did different iterations of the traditional Claus look -- including some sinister ones.

We're talking, of course, of someone dressed as the Grinch (classic) ... but also, one person donned the Krampus demon -- who's pretty much the antithesis of Santa, and who steals children for being bad. The dark version of Xmas you don't really hear about much. 😅

As for everyone else ... it seems they were having a pretty damn good time.

There's tons of footage of New Yorkers celebrating and getting rowdy, but nothing too crazy it seems. A lot of this appears to be sanctioned by the city, with NYPD officers all over and even shaking hands with the attendees.