Winter Festival Bondi Beach hosted Variety’s charity fundraiser of ‘most people dressed in a Santa suit’ and to officially launch the Variety Santa Fun Run.

Sydney’s popular Bondi Beach hosted a remarkable record 215 people last week (11July)  when guests, dressed in Santa suits took to an ice-skating rink on Bondi Beach’s iconic sands to smash the world record for the most skating Santa’s, previously held by the UK who had staged a gathering of 143 Santa’s.

215 guests in Santa suits turned up for the Variety charity fundraiser held at Bondi Beach.

Variety’s events and development manager, Brooke Taylor was thrilled with the turnout saying, “The support for this special event exceeded our expectations. While we only needed around 150 to break the world record, skaters of all ages and abilities got into the Christmas in July spirit and helped us smash the record. If we garner as much enthusiasm for the Variety Santa Fun Run later in the year, we will be able to help all the more kids in need.”

The event officially launched the 2012 Variety Santa Fun Run which is set for Sunday November 25th and will hopefully set the scene for having a record number of Santa’s running! Variety, the children’s charity is encouraging Australians to register early for the Santa Fun Run in hope of attracting record numbers and raise money for kids in need across Australia.

The temporary ice skating rink has been built in Bondi as part of the Winter Festival currently taking place.

Each state will host a Variety Santa Fun Run on November 25th with a five kilometer run course set for the Sydney event, which will start at Palm Grove, Darling Harbour and finish at Tumbalong Park. Participants can run it, hop it, skip it or complete the course in baby steps, as long as its done in the five piece Santa Suit which comes with the registration fee of just $35 for adults or $20 for children.