Denmark hosts World Santa Claus Congress as Europe swelters in July

It’s starting to look lots like Christmas — if you happen to ignore the calendar, that’s.

While a lot of Europe continues to grapple with stifling summer season warmth, one Danish metropolis regarded prepared for Christmas.

Hundreds of Santa Clauses, Mrs. Clauses and Christmas elves from all over the world crammed the streets this week for the annual World Santa Claus Congress in Aalborg for a colourful custom that has delighted onlookers for many years regardless of happening months earlier than the vacation season.

The festive gathering remodeled Denmark’s fourth-largest metropolis right into a sea of pink fits, white beards and Christmas cheer as skilled Santas marched by downtown, posed for pictures with guests and took half in video games and competitions all in the midst of July.

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This 12 months’s occasion got here as central and Southern Europe proceed to grapple with excessive warmth, making the sight of dozens of Santas bundled of their signature outfits much more hanging.

First staged at an amusement park close to Copenhagen in 1957, the World Santa Claus Congress moved to Aalborg on Denmark’s Jutland peninsula two years in the past.

The annual gathering will rejoice its seventieth anniversary subsequent 12 months.

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Originally created to entertain youngsters, the congress has since grown into a preferred assembly place for the women and men who painting Santa Claus and his North Pole coterie in the course of the Christmas season in shops, buying malls and vacation occasions all over the world.

Participants traveled all the best way from international locations together with Norway and Japan to change tales, examine beards, sharpen their craft and put together for an additional busy Christmas season.

The packed schedule consists of gingerbread-eating contests, gift-wrapping competitions, balloon modeling and several other vigorous parades by Aalborg’s sun-drenched streets.

“The grandmas say: ‘Oh, it’s too early to come here,'” organizer Peter Gislund, who additionally serves as Santa Claus in Aalborg in the course of the Christmas season, instructed The Associated Press.

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The youngsters, nonetheless, reacted as most kids are likely to upon seeing Santa Claus.

“The kids say: ‘Hooray! Santa’s here already,'” he added.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.