The origin of Santa Claus is agreed to be attributed to the European Saint Nicholas (Nicholas of Myre who lived in Turkey in the 4th century) whose name Sinter Klaas in Dutch became Santa Claus in the United States where Santa Claus took on the importance that we know him today.
In 1862, Thomas Nast drew a Santa Claus in Harper’s Illustrated Weekly in NY. He will evolve for nearly 30 years to end up dressed in red. It is also Nast who is said to have established Santa’s residence at the North Pole.
At that time Coca-Cola is considered as a refreshing drink and an advertising agency (the D’arcy Advertising Adgency) with the idea to stage Santa Claus to show that it is to be consumed in any season. In 1930 it was Fred Mizen who staged a Santa Claus in the middle of a crowd near a fountain soda.
But it is from 1931 that Haddon Sundblom intervenes, who for 33 years will paint the portraits of Santa Claus of all the winter campaigns … He was inspired by a poem by Clement Clark Moore in 1822 ( A visit of St Nicholas, better known as Twas the night before christmas) which described a human and cheerful Santa Claus, then a friend and his own reflection in the mirror to draw the Santa Claus we all know. At first alone, he was accompanied by a girl in pajamas in 1938, then a young boy in the 1950s and a dog in 1964.
So it wasn’t Coca-Cola that gave Santa Claus the colour red, but it made him popular and gave him the jovial red silhouette we all know.
