Iconic Santa Claus Image Created

In December 1931, The Coca-Cola Company launched one of the most influential holiday advertising campaigns in modern commercial history when illustrator Haddon Sundblom created the company’s now famous Santa Claus artwork. Commissioned through the D'Arcy Advertising Agency, the campaign was designed to strengthen Coca-Cola’s winter sales by associating the beverage with warmth, celebration, and holiday traditions during the Christmas season. The first advertisement featuring Sundblom’s Santa Claus appeared in December 1931 in The Saturday Evening Post under the title “My Hat’s Off to the Pause That Refreshes.” Unlike earlier commercial depictions of Santa Claus that often portrayed him as small, stern, or heavily stylized, Sundblom presented Santa as a warm, human, cheerful, and approachable figure. The illustration showed Santa taking a break to enjoy a bottle of Coca-Cola while delivering Christmas gifts. Sundblom based his interpretation of Santa Claus largely on the description found in Clement Clarke Moore’s 1823 poem “A Visit from St. Nicholas,” more commonly known as “’Twas the Night Before Christmas.” The poem described Santa as a jolly, plump, rosy-cheeked figure with a friendly personality, characteristics that Sundblom emphasized in his paintings. His version helped reinforce many of the visual traits now widely associated with the modern image of Santa Claus. To create the original artwork, Sundblom initially used his friend Lou Prentiss, a retired salesman, as the live model for Santa. After Prentiss later died, Sundblom reportedly began using his own reflection in a mirror as a reference for subsequent paintings. Over the following decades, Sundblom continued producing Coca-Cola Santa illustrations annually, creating a long-running series of holiday advertisements that appeared in magazines, billboards, store displays, calendars, and promotional materials across the United States and internationally. The campaign proved highly successful and became deeply connected to Coca-Cola’s global brand identity. Although Coca-Cola did not invent Santa Claus, Sundblom’s artwork became one of the most widely recognized and commercially influential portrayals of the character during the twentieth century. The illustrations helped standardize the image of Santa as a red suited, white bearded, cheerful holiday figure in popular culture and advertising. Coca-Cola’s holiday campaigns featuring Sundblom’s Santa continued for more than three decades and remain central to the company’s Christmas marketing legacy. Original paintings from the campaign are now preserved in archives, museums, and exhibitions related to advertising and commercial art history. Historical Significance Haddon Sundblom’s 1931 Coca-Cola Santa Claus campaign helped define the modern visual image of Santa Claus for generations of consumers worldwide. The advertisements demonstrated the growing power of commercial illustration and corporate advertising in shaping twentieth century popular culture and holiday traditions.