Great Santa run returns to Vegas

Great Santa run returns to Vegas

Hordes of runners dressed in Santa costumes filled the streets of Las Vegas on Saturday (Dec. 2) for the 13th annual Great Santa Run.

Hordes of runners dressed in Santa costumes filled the streets of Las Vegas on Saturday (Dec. 2) for the 13th annual Great Santa Run.

The holiday event sees thousands of people dressed as Santa Claus competing in a race through downtown Las Vegas.

The purpose of the event is to raise both awareness and money for Opportunity Village, a charity helping adults with intellectual disabilities.

Las Vegas legend Wayne Newton and former Playboy Bunny Holly Madison announced the start of the race.

Locals may have found the festive atmosphere a welcome distraction, two months after the city became the scene of one of the worst mass shootings in modern US history.

Gunman Stephen Paddock fired on a crowd of 22,000 country music fans at an outdoor festival on the Vegas Strip on Oct. 1, killing 58 people and wounding hundreds more before taking his own life.

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