The Soda Company That Created Santa Claus As We Know Him
Santa Claus is widely known today as a jolly old man with a large belly, big white beard, and a white-trimmed red coat, but he didn't always look that way. Santa's appearance used to vary widely; some were similar to the modern Santa, while others looked elven or even somewhat demonic. But Santa coalesced into the man we know in the 1930s, thanks to a series of iconic advertisements from The Coca-Cola Company.
In 1931, Coca-Cola hired a Michigan-born illustrator named Haddon Sundblom to design a particularly warm and friendly Santa (not Santa impersonator), with a big belly and big red coat, to be used for the company's advertisements that winter. Debuting in the popular Saturday Evening Post, Coke ads with Sundblom's Santa were soon on newspapers, magazines, and billboards everywhere. He was an instant hit.
Even though it struck gold with Sundblom in 1931, Coca-Cola had experimented with other Santas before. In the 1920s, a decade which also saw a different version of the polar bears, Coke based its Santa on an influential illustration from decades earlier — so influential that Sundblom drew inspiration from it, as he also did a famous 19th century poem.
The Coca-Cola Santa was based on previous Santas
Perhaps the earliest roots of the Coca-Cola Santa begin in 1822, with Clement Clark Moore's poem "A Visit from St. Nicholas," more popularly known as "'Twas the Night Before Christmas." Moore's poem is the source of a lot of classic Santa imagery, including eight of the named reindeer and a "sleigh full of Toys."
Moore's poem helped popularize the concept of St. Nicholas as a Christmas gift-giver among Americans. In 1881 — five years before the founding of The Coca-Cola Company — political cartoonist Thomas Nast drew an extremely popular version of Santa based on Moore's poem. Nast's Santa was somewhat stern-faced, but otherwise close to the eventual Coke version, including a big belly wrapped in a red coat, with white fur trim and a large belt buckle.
Santa has sold a lot of products, but none more iconic than Coca-Cola. With Moore and Nast's versions of Santa already well-known, Sundblom's similar take — with extra cheer requested by Coca-Cola — soon made the drink part of Christmas. Coke had come a long way removed from its origins as an alcoholic, cocaine-infused morphine replacement.