SantaCon On For Saturday

SantaCon, the annual gathering of jolly revelers clad in Santa Claus costumes who parade from bar to bar spreading cheer and drinking beer, is returning to Hoboken this Saturday for a third year.

As recently as this past weekend, however, it was unclear whether this year's event, which had long been advertised online but had never actually been planned, would even occur.

After it became clear over the weekend that the event's original organizer had backed out and that without a Christmas miracle SantaCon wouldn't be coming to town, a group of Hoboken residents stepped up to organize a last-minute pub crawl.

A Facebook page popped up late Monday afternoon and by Tuesday night an eight-bar itinerary had been finalized. More than 300 people have confirmed their attendance on the SantaCon 2013 Facebook event page.

The pub crawl runs from 1 p.m. to 9 p.m. with each of the eight participating bars offering drink specials to costumed Santas during a designated hour of the day. Toys for Tots donations are also encouraged as part of this year's SantaCon. Attendees can drop off their toy donations at Iconic Fashion Lounge, 509 Washington St., on their way to the pub crawl.

Below is the itinerary for this year's SantaCon: