Only in New York, or possibly Philadelphia, could a collection of 1,000 Santas spark a partisan riot. Not surprisingly, both cities figure into this story about a hockey promotion gone bad:

The promotion invited fans to dress up as Santa Claus for [the NY Islanders] Tuesday night's game against the Philadelphia Flyers and be admitted to the Nassau Coliseum for free. What's more, they were permitted to parade across the ice between periods.

About 1,000 Santa Clauses showed up and as promised, they were invited on the ice after the first period.

This turned out to be not such a good idea. As the Santas milled around, two of them removed their red jackets to reveal jerseys of the rival Rangers — not a good thing to do in the home of the Islanders.

Ignoring the holiday spirit, some of the other St. Nicks turned into Bad Santas, jumping the Ranger fans. The interlopers were knocked to the ice and had the shirts ripped off. Other Santas went sliding across the ice during the melee that took six minutes to settle down.

This tops the nadir of Santa in Philadelphia, where not too long ago Santa was booed during a holiday parade. I'm sure that any children in the stands had to be wondering why 1,000 Santas would commit assault on one another on Christmas Eve. It seems that the adults have a lot of growing up to do, and a lot less alcohol to drink, in their future if they want to move from the real Santa's "naughty" to "nice" list.

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