If you spent Saturday night in downtown Stamford and swear you saw a horde of Santas and sexy elves making their way across Bedford Street, it wasn't the eggnog you swigged – and you probably don't need a new pair of glasses.

Cloaked in blinking lights, sweaters patterned with frolicking reindeer, drugstore-bought St. Nick's caps and other Christmas kitsch that's synonymous with "the most wonderful time of the year," 120 or so Fairfield County residents and friends took part in downtown Stamford's third-annual "12 Bars of Christmas" bar crawl. 

This year, the eight-hour-plus crawl, which kicked off at 5 p.m., sent participants on a whirlwind tour of some of Stamford's finest pubs and bars, including Butterfield 8, Tigin, Bradford's, SBC, Riviera Maya, Rack 'N Roll, Grand, Hula Hanks, Black Bear, Bobby V's and Tiernans (at the last minute, a decision was made to skip Buffalo Wild Wings, originally the fourth bar on the list). 

The best part? Not only did the word-of-mouth event that was promoted through a simple Facebook invite inspire a mass of costumed attendees to come out for an urban holiday adventure, but it proved that you don't need fancy fliers or expensive magazine ads to attract people to an event if it's something worth attending. (Full disclosure: This writer had several friends in attendance). 

So many people participated in the bar crawl that marketer by day Julie Harris, a Stamford resident who has organized the event for the past three years, reportedly ran out of specially made $3 koozies. 

"The beauty of 12 bars of Christmas is people just bring friends and invite friends because it is such a great time," Harris told Patch. "It's a great way to meet new people and enjoy drink specials in downtown Stamford." 

The event kicked off at Butterfield 8 at 5 p.m., where bar crawlers got a their first glimpse of the most creative attire, drank their first rounds of discounted libations and applauded for the most festively clad men and women in a costume contest. Winners scored one-of-a-kind, bedazzled koozies. 

"I was really excited to win," said Stamford resident Carolyn Fanning, 27, who admitted to taking two hours to create her flair-festooned, red-dress ensemble. "This is my first pub crawl." 

Costume contest runner-up Kane Ramsay, a 25-year-old Greenwich resident, said creating the perfect outfit – a "stocking stuffer" – took less than an hour. She said she was inspired by a giant stocking hanging on the door to her parents' house, which she used for the main part of her get-up. 

For Stamford-based Jason Bomberger, a 25-year-old IT auditor, the fun was not only in "crawling" around in a red pajama suit (which certainly makes for a nice transition into bed after a night of bar hopping) but in trying to keep pace with last year's feat: being one of the few to say he crawled through all the bars on the bill. 

"After six or seven bars, people don't want to leave," Bomberger said. "But I think it keeps things interesting, with the change of scenery." 

We'll drink to that.