who thinks Santa clause was invented by the coca cola company?

Question

by the way its true, my texas history teacher told me

Answer 1

Your texas history teacher needs to be fired. Santa Claus was around way before 1886, when Coke was invented. The Dutch and Germans exchanged gifts during Christmas time in honor of St. Nicholas as early as the 18th century.

The modern Santa Claus derived from images of St. Nicholas and a friendlier "Kriss Kringle" amalgam of the Christkindlein and Pelznickel figures. The man-sized version of Santa became the dominant image around 1841, when a Philadelphia merchant named J.W. Parkinson hired a man to dress in "Criscringle" clothing and climb the chimney outside his shop.

In 1863, a caricaturist for Harper's Weekly named Thomas Nast began developing his own image of Santa. Nast gave his figure a "flowing set of whiskers" and dressed him "all in fur, from his head to his foot." Nast's 1866 montage entitled "Santa Claus and His Works" established Santa as a maker of toys; an 1869 book of the same name collected new Nast drawings with a poem by George P. Webster that identified the North Pole as Santa's home. Although Nast never settled on one size for his Santa figures (they ranged from elf-like to man-sized), his 1881 "Merry Old Santa Claus" drawing is quite close to the modern-day image.

The Santa Claus figure, although not yet standardized, was ubiquitous by the late 19th century. Santa was portrayed as both large and small; he was usually round but sometimes of normal or slight build; and he dressed in furs (like Belsnickle) or cloth suits of red, blue, green, or purple. A Boston printer named Louis Prang introduced the English custom of Christmas cards to America, and in 1885 he issued a card featuring a red-suited Santa. The chubby Santa with a red suit (like an "overweight superhero") began to replace the fur-dressed Belsnickle image and the multicolored Santas.

At the beginning of the 1930s, the Coca-Cola company was still looking for ways to increase sales of their product during winter. They turned to an illustrator named Haddon Sundblom, who created a series of memorable drawings that associated the figure of a larger than life, red-and-white garbed Santa Claus with Coca-Cola. Coke's annual advertisements — featuring Sundblom-drawn Santas holding bottles of Coca-Cola, drinking Coca-Cola, receiving Coca-Cola as gifts, and especially enjoying Coca-Cola — became a perennial Christmastime feature which helped spur Coca-Cola sales throughout the winter. The success of this advertising campaign has helped fuel the legend that Coca-Cola actually invented the image of the modern Santa Claus, decking him out in a red-and-white suit to promote the company colors — or that at the very least, Coca-Cola chose to promote the red-and-white version of Santa Claus over a variety of competing Santa figures in order to establish it as the accepted image of Santa Claus.

This legend is not true. Although some versions of the Santa Claus figure still had him attired in various colors of outfits past the beginning of the 20th century, the jolly, ruddy, sack-carrying Santa with a red suit and flowing white whiskers had become the standard image of Santa Claus by the 1920s, several years before Sundlom drew his first Santa illustration for Coca-Cola. As The New York Times reported on 27 November 1927:

Answer 2

He most certainly was NOT invented by the Coca Cola company. He wasn't invented at all, in fact. He was once a very real person.

Saint Nicholas, which was contracted in later years to various forms such as Sinter-klaus and Santa Claus, was originally a historical person, a Christian bishop who oversaw the church in the city of Myra in modern day Turkey. This was during the reigns of the emperors Diocletian and Constantine during the Roman empire. The whole Santa-stocking thing comes from a famed incident where the shy bishop, wishing to help a poor family with a dowry, dropped gold coins down their chimney, where they fell in stockings hung their to dry.

The Dutch commemorated this event on St. Nicholas' feast day, December 6.

The modern iteration of Santa Claus comes far, far more from Clement Clarke Moore's "A Visit from St. Nick (Twas the Night Before Christmas)" written many decades before Coca Cola came onto the scene.

What can be said to be attributable to Coca Cola is our interpretation of his appearance. The red suit with white trim? Yes - that much may come from Coca Cola, although even this is not entirely original. (Coca Cola's Santa looks an awful lot like western religious icons of Saint Nicholas, who is often shown in red vestments and a red mitre.)

Answer 3

The story of Santa was NOT invented by the Coca Cola company. Your teacher needs to go back to school!
Yes, his red suit was made up by Coca Cola. His traditional suit was green. I suggest you do some research on your own if you are really interested in this story. Here's a starter; the story originated in the Netherlands...

Answer 4

Thats a common misconception becuase coca cola was invented in the late 1800s but santa was written and documented about many years before that.
thats what i think

Answer 5

No it's not. Santa Clause is loosely based of the Christian saint St. Nicholas combined with German and Dutch Folklore. There are various versions from all over the world. The details about Santa vary from place to place. Such as in some places the bad children recieve coal, while in others children fear being beaten by black bart, a small deamon that traveled on his sleigh.

Modern interpretations of Santa come from the poem "The Night Before Christmas".

Other names for "Santa" in other countries are:
Albania ("Babadimri")
Armenia ("Gaghant Baba")
Denmark ("Julemanden")
Italy ("Babbo Natale")
Lithuania ("Kalėdų Senelis")
Brazil ("Papai Noel")
Portugal ("Pai Natal")
Romania ("Moş Crăciun")
Russia ("Ded Moroz")
Germany ("Weihnachtsmann" or "Nikolaus")
Scottish Highlands ("Daidaín na Nollaig")
France and French Canada ("Le Père Noël")
Ireland ("Daidí na Nollaig")
Finland ("Joulupukki")
Norway ("Julenissen")
Sweden ("Jultomten")
Bulgaria ("Dyado Koleda")
Turkey ("Noel Baba")
Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina ("Deda Mraz")
Spain and Latin America ("Papá Noel")
Afghanistan ("Baba Chaghaloo")
Iraq and South Africa ("Vader Kersfees")
Chile (Viejo Pascuero)
Malta ("San Niklaw")
Egypt ("Papa Noël")
Iran ("Baba Noel")

Coke did not invent Santa, just used it as a marketing thing. They also did not invent the color red, or polar bears

Answer 6

Thomas Nast was the artist for Saturday Evening Post who drew the image of Santa which is so popular today

Answer 7

He wasn't.

If I remember correctly, there was a Russian St. Nicolaus, but how he became a veritable Xmas god is the story I forget.

But you can see him all over victorian postcards, and the like, and I don't think he was associated with Coke ads until the 20s.

Answer 8

Well honey your teaxs history teacher is wrong
Coke may have used him to there advantage but
there has been the legend of him for far longer thatn coke has been around

look into it

Answer 9

what i have heard, not sure if it is true is that good old santa used to be green untill coke cola got their hands on him and started to advertise him as red and now he is forever known as being red.

Answer 10

no...you and her are wrong. From what I undertand it was a german/dutch tradition. Coca Cola didnt have anything to do with it.