Before Coca‑Cola was invented, Santa Claus (St Nick) had appeared in numerous illustrations and books wearing a scarlet coat. He was portrayed a variety of ways. He could be tall and gaunt or short and elfin, sometimes distinguished and intellectual, other times rather frightening.
In fact, when Civil War cartoonist Thomas Nast drew Santa Claus for Harper's Weekly in 1862, Santa was a small elflike figure who supported the Union. Nast continued to draw Santa for 30 years, changing the color of his coat from tan to the red he's known for today.
Prior to Nast's work, Santa's outfit was tan in color, and it was he that changed it to red, although he also drew Santa in a green suit. This change is often mistakenly attributed to the work of Haddon Sundblom, who drew images of Santa in advertising for the Coca-Cola Company since 1931.
The real Saint Nicholas is likely to have had olive skin, dark brown eyes and a wide chin and brow. He stood at 1.68 metres (5ft 6in) and had a broken nose. However, according to the researchers, he did sport white hair and a beard - as was the fashion for 4th century religious leaders.
The tradition of him wearing red began in the 1870s with the American cartoonist Thomas Nast, who introduced the red suit and cap, white fur lining and buckled black belt.
However, it was not until the late part of the 19th century that the character adopted the red suit that was popular for Santa Claus in America, and so for much of the Victorian period, Father Christmas was often green.
St Nicholas, who was the real historical figure who Santa Claus is based on, was originally seen as wearing red, since that was the colour of the religious robes he would have worn for his role as the Bishop of Myra in Turkey in the 3rd Century.
Santa wasn't always illustrated as a jolly soul with a red coat, rosy cheeks, big white beard, portly belly, and black boots. Prior to 1931, Santa was illustrated as a tall gaunt man or a spooky-looking elf.
Santa Claus may be popularly known as a white-bearded benefactor with Dutch-English origins, but multiethnic versions of Santa are making the rounds out there too -- illustrating that in an increasingly diverse United States, Santa takes on whatever color you imagine him to be.
Coca-Cola did not create the legend of Santa Claus. But Coca-Cola advertising did play a big role in shaping the jolly character we know today. Before 1931, there were many different depictions of Santa Claus around the world, including a tall gaunt man and an elf —there was even a scary Claus.
No. It's widely believed that today's Santa wears a red suit because that's the colour associated with Coca‑Cola, but this isn't the case. Before the Coca‑Cola Santa was even created, St Nick had appeared in numerous illustrations and written descriptions wearing a scarlet coat.
Over the decades Santa would be depicted in a variety of colours such as blue, green and the yellow as pictured in this 1864 edition of Moore's "A Visit from St. Nicholas".
A long time ago Father Christmas was shown in clothes of different colours: green, purple, light-blue, navy blue, brown or red.
German immigrants brought Santa Claus figurines to Ohio in the 1800s and once like the blue Santa were made locally. The director of the American Toy Marvel Museum says the blue color was traditional for the German version of St. Nicholas.
Nicholas was born around 280 A.D. in Patara, Lycia, which is in modern-day Turkey, which has often been the source of Middle Eastern ideas diffusing into European culture. So, St. Nicholas, or Santa Claus as we know him, was not white. He was pretty thin but did have a white beard and was filled with joy and kindness.
Slowly, from the 1900s onwards, Father Christmas started wearing green and white less and less often on Christmas cards. Eventually, his attire became exclusively red – thanks, in part, to Coca Cola's iconic 1930s advertisements.
Nicholas: The Real Santa Claus. The legend of Santa Claus can be traced back hundreds of years to a monk named St. Nicholas. It is believed that Nicholas was born sometime around A.D. 280 in Patara, near Myra in modern-day Turkey.
Claus's first name comes from a historically accurate set of stories written by James Rees in 1849. This book of stories is called “Mysteries of City Life.” In it, Mr. Rees asserts that Mrs. Claus's first name is in fact Gertrude.
“Are Mom and Dad really Santa?” We know that you want to know the answer and we had to give it careful thought to know just what to say. The answer is no.
The Coca-Cola Company began its Christmas advertising in the 1920s with shopping-related ads in American magazines like The Saturday Evening Post. The first Santa ads used a stern-looking Kris Kringle, in the vein of Thomas Nast.
Black representations of Santa Claus can be traced back to at least the late 19th-century United States, where the character was folded into a racist minstrel and vaudeville tradition designed to frame Black people as inferior to Whites.
In the mid-1800s, it was popular to draw Santa Claus either in his bishop's robes or as a man with a pointed hat, long coat, and straight beard. It wasn't uncommon to see Santa drawn as quite tall and gaunt.
In truth, "ho ho ho" doesn't mean anything. It's actually just the sound of Santa Claus's laughter. It might sound strange to us to hear someone laughing like this, since most people's laughter sounds more like "ha ha ha" instead of "ho ho ho".
Favorite Color: Most often, you see Santa wearing his famous red-and-white suit and hat. However, when he's not dressed in this familiar attire, Santa puts on his other favorite color: green!
The original British Father Christmas, as depicted in 17th century, sported a beard, but it wasn't white, and his clothing colour was green, not red. And we can thank Scandinavian myths for his reindeer pulled sled, though the red nosed reindeer leader, 'Rudolph', was another American advertising creation.