Did Coca-Cola Invent Santa? The Real History

Did Coca-Cola invent Santa? No. Santa Claus was a well-known figure long before Coca-Cola ran its first Santa ad in 1931, and the company itself says Santa appeared in a red coat before its illustrator Haddon Sundblom painted him.¹

What Coca-Cola did do is help fix the picture most of us carry around today: a warm, round, grandfatherly man in red and white. Sundblom painted that Santa for 33 years, in magazines read by millions of people.¹²

Here in Australia that picture is a bit odd, because Santa's fur-trimmed suit was designed for a northern winter and we celebrate in summer. Below is the real timeline, the soft drink brand that used Santa first, and how a northern Santa ended up in thongs and board shorts at the shopping centre.

Did Coca-Cola create Santa Claus? The short answer

The myth survives because the Coca-Cola Santa is so memorable. But the building blocks (the sleigh, the reindeer, the toys, the chimney and the red suit) were in place before 1931.³⁴

Santa Claus before Coca-Cola

Sources for the timeline: Wikipedia, the American Battlefield Trust and the Coca-Cola Company.³⁵¹ For the even older roots of the gift-bringer, read St Nicholas vs Santa Claus.

Thomas Nast: the cartoonist who drew Santa

The most important Santa artist before Coca-Cola was Thomas Nast, who arrived in New York as a child in 1846.⁵ His first Santa ran in Harper's Weekly on 3 January 1863, during the American Civil War, as a Union supporter handing out presents to soldiers.⁵ Between 1863 and 1886 Nast drew 33 Christmas pictures, all but one with Santa in them.⁵

Nast's pictures were black and white, so he cannot be the source of the red suit. The printer Louis Prang, known as the father of the American Christmas card, helped popularise red Santas on colour cards in the 1870s.⁵ By the early 1900s, Puck magazine covers showed Santa in red and white in essentially his current form.³ An article on the history of the shopping centre Santa adds that a painter, Robert Weir, pictured an elf-like Santa in a red cape as early as 1837.⁶

White Rock: the soft drink that used Santa first

Coca-Cola was not even the first soft drink brand to hire Santa. White Rock mineral water used a Santa figure in black-and-white ads in 1915, and in colour drink-mixer ads in 1923 to 1925. Pepsi-Cola later used similar Santa paintings in the 1940s and 1950s.³

Sundblom's Coca-Cola Santa, 1931 to 1964

In December 1930 Coca-Cola ran a painting by Fred Mizen of a department-store Santa drinking a Coke, in print ads and in The Saturday Evening Post.¹ In 1931 the company turned to the illustrator Haddon Sundblom. Coca-Cola says he took his idea from the 1823 poem and painted a warm, plump, human Santa instead of a stern or spooky one.¹²

The ads ran in The Saturday Evening Post, Ladies' Home Journal, National Geographic and The New Yorker. Sundblom's first model was a retired salesman and friend, Lou Prentiss, and his final Santa dates from 1964.¹

So why is Santa red and white?

It is tempting to think the suit was picked to match the logo. But red was already Santa's colour, as the company admits.¹ What Sundblom did was repeat the same friendly red-and-white Santa year after year, in some of the most widely seen advertising of the century, until other versions faded. That is influence, not invention.

The Australian angle: a northern Santa in a southern summer

Australian Christmas shares what Wikipedia calls winter iconography with Britain, Ireland, the US and Canada, such as a red, fur-coated Father Christmas or Santa riding a sleigh, even though December here is hot.⁷ So the Santa on our shopping centre posters is the same northern figure described above, and it is fair to say Coke's ads were one of many pushes behind that look. We found no source showing that Coca-Cola introduced Santa to Australia.

Australians have had fun with it. Some songwriters and authors have drawn Santa with an Akubra hat and thongs, or on a ute pulled by kangaroos. Wikipedia dates the best-known kangaroo song, “Six White Boomers”, to 1960, and notes that these local versions have not replaced the mainstream image.⁷

Our biggest local Santa tradition came from a department store, not a drinks company. The Adelaide Christmas Pageant was founded by John Martin's owner Edward Hayward and first ran on 18 November 1933, during the Great Depression. A Father Christmas float was added in 1934, and the 2025 pageant drew more than 335,000 people.⁸ Another Australian Christmas tradition, Carols by Candlelight, began in Melbourne in 1938.⁷

Coca-Cola's own Christmas Truck is a late arrival here: the first Australian tour was announced in November 2017, in partnership with The Salvation Army.⁹ Read more about the local side of Santa in Aussie Santa: a summer Christmas.

So who gets the credit for Santa?

Many people over a long time: Dutch settlers, Washington Irving, the author of the 1823 poem, Thomas Nast, card printers like Louis Prang, magazine illustrators, and yes, Coca-Cola's Haddon Sundblom. Coca-Cola did not invent Santa, but it gave him the face that so many of us still picture.

If your kids are asking tricky questions, try Santa's reindeer names, what Santa is called around the world, or the big one: Is Santa real?

Coca-Cola and Santa: frequently asked questions

Did Coca-Cola invent Santa Claus?

No. Santa was part of American culture long before Coca-Cola's first Santa ad. Washington Irving wrote about him in 1809, the poem “A Visit from St. Nicholas” appeared in 1823, and Thomas Nast drew him for Harper's Weekly from 1863. Coca-Cola's Haddon Sundblom began painting his Santa in 1931.

Did Coca-Cola make Santa wear red?

No. Coca-Cola itself says Santa appeared in a red coat before Sundblom painted him. Red-and-white Santas were on Puck magazine covers in the early 1900s, and colour Christmas cards from the 1870s had already made red popular. Coke's ads helped make that look the standard.

Is the Santa we see in Australia the Coca-Cola Santa?

In look, mostly yes. Australian Christmas shares what Wikipedia calls “winter iconography” with Britain and North America, including a red, fur-trimmed Santa. That look came from the same northern history, and Coke's ads were one strong push towards it. Australian versions with an Akubra hat or a ute pulled by kangaroos exist, but they have not replaced the mainstream image.

Did Coca-Cola bring Santa to Australia?

We found no evidence for that. Santa and Father Christmas arrived through British and American Christmas customs, and the Adelaide Christmas Pageant, which began in 1933 and got its Father Christmas in 1934, is a department-store tradition, not a soft drink one. Coca-Cola's own Christmas Truck only toured Australia for the first time in 2017.

Who painted the Coca-Cola Santa?

The illustrator Haddon Sundblom, from 1931 to 1964. His first live model was his friend Lou Prentiss (spelled Prentice in some sources), a retired salesman. Later Sundblom reportedly used his own face in a mirror.

Why is Santa's suit red?

There was no single original colour. Nast's drawings were black and white, and the red suit spread through colour cards and magazine covers. The red-and-white look was settled well before 1931.

When did the Coca-Cola Christmas Truck come to Australia?

The first Australian Christmas Truck tour was announced in November 2017, run with The Salvation Army. The trucks themselves first appeared in a TV ad in the mid-1990s.

Sources

1. 1The Coca-Cola Company: Haddon Sundblom and the Coca-Cola Santas (coca-colacompany.com)
2. 2Wikipedia: Haddon Sundblom (en.wikipedia.org)
3. 3Wikipedia: Santa Claus (en.wikipedia.org)
4. 4Wikipedia: A Visit from St. Nicholas (en.wikipedia.org)
5. 5American Battlefield Trust: The man behind Merry Old Santa Claus (battlefields.org)
6. 6The Conversation (republished): The history of the shopping centre Santa (Dec. 2021) (devdiscourse.com)
7. 7Wikipedia: Christmas in Australia (en.wikipedia.org)
8. 8Wikipedia: Adelaide Christmas Pageant (en.wikipedia.org)
9. 9Mumbrella: Coca-Cola launches Christmas Truck in Australia (14 Nov. 2017) (mumbrella.com.au)