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Our Modern Day Santa Claus
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The rosy-cheeked, roly-poly Santa we know today began with the poem by Clement Clarke Moore. But, he was greatly enhanced in the late 1800's by the cartoon drawings of Thomas Nast. From 1863 until 1886, Nast drew pictures of Santa Claus for "Harper's Weekly" magazine.
Over these years, Santa evolved from the elf-like character in Moore's poem to a jolly, potbellied life-sized man. Nast also drew Santa making toys, living at the North Pole and reading letters from children to find out what they wanted for Christmas. All of these things became part of the popular folklore.
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The other great influence on our modern Santa was the Coca-Cola company. From 1931 to 1964, Haddon Sundblom created a new Santa each Christmas for Coca-Cola advertisements. These pictures appeared world-wide on the back covers of "The Saturday Evening Post" and "National Geographic" magazines. The Coca-Cola Santa with his red suit trimmed in white fur, black leather boots and belt, long white beard and pack full of toys is the Santa Claus children dream about today.
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