Raw States
Surfing Santas of Cocoa Beach
Cocoa Beach, FL · Quirky
- When
- December 24, 2026
- Where
- End of Minutemen Causeway, near 2 Minutemen Causeway · Cocoa Beach · FL
- Cost
- Not confirmed
- Status
- Confirmed from the organizer's published schedule
Hundreds of surfers dress as Santa, elves and reindeer to paddle out on Christmas Eve morning while thousands watch from the sand. Running since 2009 and covered nationally almost every year, it has become the Space Coast's signature holiday spectacle, raising money for charity.
The history within reach
- Surfing Santas of Cocoa Beachsame spot
Hundreds of surfers dress as Santa, elves and reindeer to paddle out on Christmas Eve morning while thousands watch from the sand.
I Dream of Jeannie set its astronaut sitcom in Cocoa Beach at the exact moment the real space program made the town famous, and the town has leaned into it since: there is an I Dream of Jeannie Lane, and the giant Ron Jon Surf Shop up the road never closes..
- Where Jeannie lived1.1 mi
I Dream of Jeannie put its astronaut hero's house in Cocoa Beach, and for five seasons the show sold America a fantasy of the space-race beach town: crew cuts, cocktails and a genie in a bottle found after a splashdown.
A two-acre art-deco temple to surfing that has not locked its doors in decades: open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, on the theory that somebody always needs wax at 3 am.
Billed as the largest birding festival in the country, it runs guided trips into the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge and Indian River Lagoon habitats that make this stretch of coast a globally known migratory stopover.