Throwback Thursday: Did Coke invent the Santa Claus we know?

It's hard to imagine Santa Claus as anything except the benevolent old man we know today with twinkling eyes and jolly laughter. Yet, there was a time when Santa used to be much more sombre, shorter and even scarier.

The kindly Santa hauling gifts, coming down a chimney shoot with a burst of booming laughter came into existence barely a hundred years ago. Santa, as we know him, is the doing of Haddon Sundblom, a commercial artist who worked for a brand that, like Santa, has an inextricable connection with the colour red -- Coca-Cola.

Santa before Coca-Cola

Today's Santa Claus is a combination of the Dutch Sinterklaas and the British Father Christmas—both of whom are based on the 4th-century Christian saint Saint Nicholas of Myra who was known for giving gifts.

While they all involved old, bearded men, they differed widely in temperaments and garbs. In Belgium and the Netherlands, the sombre-looking Sinterklaas wore a bishop's alb. Russia's Grandfather Frost had pagan origins and is portrayed holding a long staff. France's Papa Noël rode a donkey instead of a reindeer sledge. In Norway, Sweden, and Denmark, Santa is a gnome named Tomte.

Santa also became a political figure in the United States when Civil War cartoonist Thomas Nast drew him for Harper's Weekly in 1862.

He drew him as a small, elfin figure at first, changing the colour of his coat gradually from tan to red for 30 years.

Today we know Santa as a grandfather-figure, tall, portly with a big belly laugh and a face that radiates kindness. He wears a red suit fur-trimmed suit with matching pants and a hat with pompoms. On his nose sits a pair of gold-rimmed glasses. A large part of this jolly persona has to do with Coca-Cola.

A Coca-Cola Christmas

In 1931, the American beverage brand Coca-Cola wanted more people to drink Coke during the holidays. Archie Lee, executive handling the brand's account for D'Arcy Advertising Agency, wanted to showcase a wholesome Santa who was "both realistic and symbolic," according to the Coca-Cola website.

The company put a Michigan-born illustrator Haddon Sundblom up to the task. He sought inspiration in Clement Clark Moore's 1822 poem "A Visit From St Nicholas" also known as "Twas the Night Before Christmas."

Down the chimney St. Nicholas came with a bound.
He was dressed all in fur, from his head to his foot,
And his clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot;
A bundle of toys he had flung on his back,
And he looked like a pedler just opening his pack.
His eyes—how they twinkled! his dimples, how merry!
His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry!
His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow,
And the beard on his chin was as white as the snow;
The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth,
And the smoke, it encircled his head like a wreath;
He had a broad face and a little round belly
That shook when he laughed, like a bowl full of jelly.
He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf,
And I laughed when I saw him, in spite of myself;

Inspired by this description, Sundblom created a warm, pleasantly plump Santa who looked more human and less elf-like. He even used a live model, his friend Lou Pretiss, as an initial model for Saint Nick.

Iterations of the Coca-Cola ads with Santa also increased engagement with the consumer base. People wrote letters to the company, sometimes complaining that Santa's belt was backwards and other times curious about the missing wedding ring on his finger.

In 1931, Sundblom's Santa started appearing in Coke ads in The Saturday Evening Post and in other magazines like Ladies Home Journal, National Geographic and The New Yorker.

Subsequent ads till 1964 also showed Santa delivering toys and playing with kids, reading letters from kids, playing with them and even raiding fridges. The depictions in the Coke ads went on to create the current lore around Santa.

In 2001, Sundblom's artwork was also converted into an animated commercial by renowned animator Alexandre Petrov.

To this day, Santa is a dominant part of the company's Christmas marketing.

Coca-cola also raised social awareness in a Christmas ad for Brazil where despite a large population of people with African ancestry, the idea of a black Santa Claus was an aberration. The company challenged this notion with an ad featuring Black Santa. 

A common misconception is that Coke is responsible for Santa's iconic red garb. For the company, the colour red was a happy coincidence. Coca-Cola dispels the myth on its website: "And even though it's often said that Santa wears a red coat because red is the color of Coca-Cola, Santa appeared in a red coat before Sundblom painted him."