Sleds and reindeers were nowhere in sight but at the Emerald Hotel on Friday night 10th December, 2010, literally hundreds of would-be Santas of all shapes and sizes spilled out onto the footpath and raised their glasses in merriment and to raise money for a number of very worthy charities.
Upon investigation, it turns out that I was witnessing the 10th Anniversary of the MMU Melbourne "Santa Crawl"
And what a great warm and friendly welcoming bunch of Santas they were - After snapping off a couple of Nikon D7000 pix via Nikon 28mm - 70mm lens, I decided to go and find out what this was all about...
It turns out that MMU has organised "Santa Crawls" in three cities this year - Melbourne, Brisbane and London and in all cases, each "pub crawling" Santa pays $20 that goes to generate profits which are donated to worthy causes. This year MMU is supporting organ donation to help increase the rates of donation. IT is SANTA’S GREATEST GIFT.
This year the Head Santa has also organised each Santa to bring a wrapped toy to be donated to the Smith Family.
Rachael (Left) and her two friends were very friendly and made me feel very welcome - so much so that I will be tempted to don the red gear next year (although I am working very hard to have anything BUT a Santa like figure by this time next year!!)
And if I needed any further persuading after meeting Rachael and friends, (which I didn't), it came in the form of an "Elizabethan Lady" Santa and her "Court Jester" style Elf - and I was very impressed to hear that our lady Santa had herself made BOTH outfits - yes - her outfit and the Elf's outfit were NPO's (North Pole Originals!!). Lovely.
For more information on MMU - see http://www.mmu.com.au
And here is the "Head Santa" and his closest compadres!
