Santas on the loose!

Cuddly rockers: Members of the Riding Santas Harley Davidson Club ride through Neustadt an der Weinstrasse, Germany, in Santa Claus costumes on St. Nicholas Day, December 6. The participants hand out candy and collect money for a nearby children's hospice.

Every year, thousands of people come to the Papa Noel charity event in Turin to raise money for the local children's hospital. A special highlight: some participants dress up as superheroes instead of Santa Claus and abseil down the hospital's facade.

This firefighter abseiling down Hamburg's Eppendorf University Hospital is used to working at lofty heights. Here, too, people dressed up as Santa Claus surprised little patients on St. Nicholas Day to take their minds off everyday hospital life.

On December 7, people in Christmas costumes paraded through the city center of La Paz, Bolivia. There's Christmas spirit all over the world ― in the Southern Hemisphere, where it's summer in December, just as much as further up north where it's winter.

In Newry, Maine, the participants of Santa Sunday, who have traveled from all over the US New England region, whiz down the slopes on skis. The event supports the River Fund, a nonprofit organization that promotes youth education and recreation in the region.

Santa Claus is chauffeured across the Haussee lake to the Christmas post office in Himmelpfort, Brandenburg, by solar-powered boat. Children have been sending their wish lists there for 40 years. Himmelpfort is the largest of the seven Christmas post offices in Germany, receiving around 300,000 letters every year.

Sometimes it's not Santa Claus who shows up, but the devil. This Satanic figure in Guatemala City is just about to be set on fire in honor of the Virgin of the Immaculate Conception. The Quema del Diablo spectacle at the beginning of December marks the official start of the Christmas season in this Central American country.

Krampus runs are organized in many communities in Austria and the southern German state of Bavaria around December 6. Young men wear orc-like masks and shaggy costumes that are supposed to represent a mixture of demon and goat. Krampus is the devilish companion of St. Nicholas. As part of some runs, participants beat spectators with a rod.

Santa caps as far as the eye can see: around 880 sporty Santa Clauses from all over Germany jogged through the small town of Michendorf on the second Sunday in Advent. The St. Nicholas Run is a tradition in the region and took place for the 16th time in 2024. The runners completed distances of up to 10 kilometers (about 6 miles), and children also took part.

Every year in December, the Tokyo Station Choir, which consists entirely of amateur singers, performs at Tokyo Station ― dressed in Santa Claus costumes, of course. In 2024, the concert also marks the 110th anniversary of the most important train station in Japan's capital.

Surfer Creighton Wall, left, was born with Down syndrome. At the Surfing Santa event, he gets support from Mark Gabriel, who is dressed up as Santa Claus. The event in Dana Point, California, has been taking place since 2010 and raises funds for a surf camp for children with autism.

Timo Kaminski, the head of the aquarium and animal care unit of the Multimar Wattforum, continued the tradition of donning a St. Nick outfit and taking a dive in the 250,000-liter (66,043-gallon) tank.

Palestinian Christian Issa Kassissieh gives presents to children in the run-up to Christmas and tries to relieve some stress in Jerusalem — no easy task, especially now in times of war.

Could a helicopter deliver gifts faster than a magic sleigh? This Santa and his elf companion are using a helicopter to deliver donated presents to an elementary school in North Carolina. The campaign is part of a project in which veterans help to rebuild the region after Hurricane Helene.