Setting the Santa Story Straight
November 23, 2006
An urban legend that still abounds says that The Coca-Cola® Company was instrumental in establishing the persona of the Santa Claus that most people associate with the jolly guy. This look features a Santa with a long, white beard, rosy cheeks and red attire. Some even believe Santa wears red and white because those are Coca-Cola's trademark colors. However, even though Coke's 1930s Santa illustration by Haddon Sundblom clearly ingrained the artist's depiction of Santa into the public's mind - and subsequently helped the company boost sales of Coca-Cola tremendously - Santa with a red suit and flowing white whiskers had become the standard image of Santa Claus by the 1920s, several years before Sundblom drew his first Santa illustration for Coca-Cola, as reported in The New York Times.
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