I Just Found Out Coca-Cola Is Responsible for Santa's Look—and My Mind Is Blown

I know we’re all busy preparing for the jolly man in red’s arrival—baking cookies, putting out Reindeer Food, maybe even giving the chimney a sweep. But, have you ever stopped to consider how the elusive gift-giver got his well-known image (if, as we know, he’s always working in secret)? 

As it turns out, the reason why the jolly man is in red at all can be attributed in part to a billion-dollar soda brand: Coca-Cola. 

Yep, Coca-Cola is largely responsible for Santa’s iconic look, and here’s how.

How Coca-Cola Helped Define Santa's Look

Most of us have only ever pictured Santa as a big, happy man in a soft red suit with a white fur trim. But, believe it or not, that wasn’t always Santa’s attire. 

The earliest portrayals of Santa, hundreds of years ago, were in blue, green, tan, and brown clothing (he was even shown wearing stars and stripes during the Civil War). The original ‘St. Nick’ wasn’t particularly tubby either. Modeled after the historical figure Saint Nicholas, he was usually illustrated with a slim, even gaunt, frame. He was seen in red occasionally, but usually in ecclesiastical robes. 

Think about it—there’s no mention of red in the 1823 poem “A Visit from St. Nicholas” (also known as “Twas the Night Before Christmas”). So, why is the red suit Santa’s signature get-up in the 21st century? 

In the 1930s, Coca-Cola ran a series of holiday advertisements featuring Santa Claus as a plump, jolly man dressed in a red and white suit. Why? Because it aligned with the brand's recognizable colors. Fairly quickly, Santa Claus became the unofficial ambassador of the soda at Christmastime.

The ad campaign wasn’t the first time Santa was illustrated this way—Thomas Nast's 1881 drawing, "Merry Old Santa Claus" gave him a similar style—but the successful soda campaign quickly popularized the image of a red-coated Santa and ingrained it in American pop culture. From 1931 on, instead of being pictured with a variety of looks, Santa sported just one. 

If you’re like me, you’ve seen those old-fashioned Coca-Cola ads plenty of times, but you thought they just featured a standard image of Santa—not that they established the standard image of Santa, particularly in Western culture. Coincidence or not, that Coca-Cola red practically defines the season.

Talk about good marketing.