Did Coca Cola Invent Santa Claus? No! They Just Helped Spread The Dream

Coca-Cola invented Santa Claus as we know him today, we all know it, we say it every year: and every year dozens of articles are written about this story. But it is not exactly like that.

The Atlanta company's marketing move was exceptional and, undoubtedly,  the association between the drink and the pot-bellied man from the North Pole dressed in red is immediate also thanks to absolutely cult commercials with images broadcast since 1931. A true symbol of Christmas, with the voice of Etta James in the background and the glass bottle in his hand, but Santa Claus has had many identities throughout history.

Sant Claus Before Coca Cola

What was Santa Claus like before Coca-Cola then? Red, with a beard and a belly, but also green, in some cases he wasn't a human at all, but an elf. In some versions, Santa Claus even fought in the American Civil War: in 1862 he was a small, elf-like figure who came to the aid of the Union.

The mythological figure of Santa Claus is in fact present in many cultures: a being who distributes gifts to children on the occasion of a divine nativity, aided by flying animals. There are also many names attributed to him: Santa Claus, Father Christmas, Sintaklaas, Sankt Nikolaus, San Nicola, Christkind; what is certain is that the "historical figure" from which he derives is San Nicola, bishop of Myra in Turkey, who became a saint because he resurrected 5 children. The red Santa Claus, on the other hand, is also depicted in the New York Times starting in 1927, identical to how we know him today.

Santa Claus After Coca Cola

So we come to 1931: on the Atlanta company's website we read that "The magical transformation of the Coca-Cola Santa Claus occurred in 1931. Archie Lee, creative director of the advertising agency, had the idea of ​​showing him healthy and kind". To create the illustration, he turned to the artist Haddon Sundblom. In the work, Santa Claus enters a house and instead of the usual cookies and milk, a Coca-Cola awaits him.

Sundblom initially painted Santa Claus with a live model, Lou Prentiss, a retired salesman friend of the cartoonist, and after Lou's death, Sundblom even used himself as a model, painting himself in the mirror. People were very attentive to the details reported for an increasingly multifaceted genealogy around the character, to the point that the company received many letters of complaint every year for "errors": the belt upside down (due to the mirror), or the wedding ring, which on some occasions was there and on others not, with people worried about the fate of their wife.

Today the figure of Santa Claus has crossed the boundaries of the collective imagination, becoming a true figure of the secular religion of the world.