The Bah! Humbug! Christmas thread.

SantaCon, which returns to New York City on Saturday, boasts on its website about raising “over $1.1 million for charitable causes” like City Harvest.

Organizers of the daylong bar crawl, during which tens of thousands of revelers in Santa costumes crowd bars and sidewalks across the city, have long defended against public pushback by saying that the event is a charity fundraiser.

A Gothamist analysis shows that the organization raised $1.4 million through SantaCon programming from late 2014 through the end of 2022, and that less than a fifth of that money has gone to registered nonprofits.

More than a third of the organization’s total giving during that period went to groups or individuals who appear connected to Burning Man, the annual weeklong festival in Nevada, including organizations devoted to hula hooping, dance parades, free costumes and more.

Gothamist’s analysis of tax documents was reviewed by three outside experts in nonprofit accounting, governance, and law.

“To the extent that they’re doing something charitable, it’s not what people think it is,” said Brian Mittendorf, the H.P. Wolfe chair in accounting at Ohio State University. “The money going to their targeted charities is minuscule as a percentage of their budget.”

The organization’s biggest named recipient was a for-profit outfit: $66,340 to Spectaculum Productions, LLC, maker of the documentary film “At Your Cervix,” an exposé about pelvic exams performed by medical students on unconscious and non-consenting patients.

In 2018, it lost $17,498 worth of investments it made in cryptocurrencies – equal to about a third of its charitable giving that year.

More than $832,000 of the money raised from SantaCon programming – or 59% – went to the nonprofit’s expenses, not including its charitable grants.

That may seem expensive for an organization that does not list any full-time employees and whose most well-known activity is a one-day event.

Stefan Pildes, founder and director of the group that runs SantaCon, said that the bills add up: temporary staff, venue contracts, permitting for street closures, sound, video, DJs, vehicles, plus overhead costs like office space, accounting, and banking fees.