Who invented the image of father christmas

Although Nast had gotten the paraphernalia of reindeer, sleigh, etc down to a tee, the famous red suit was still yet to be set. Over the decades Santa would be depicted in a variety of colours such as blue, green and the yellow as pictured in this edition of Moore's "A Visit from St. Nicholas - Source. In this advert for Sugar Plums we see the red of the jacket, but the hat is green and he appears to have no trousers on at all. In this later illustration by Thomas Nast named "Merry Old Santa" the modern Santa character really begins to take shape.

Present is the jolly rotundity and the all important red of the suit. Colour version of Thomas Nast's famous image below - Source. Frank Baum, with its elaborations and much added detail went a long way to popularising the legend of Santa.

However, in the cover to the first edition of Baum's book we see the red of his suit is still yet to be 'mandatory'.

Frank Baum - Source. In this cover for Puck illustrated by the Australian Frank A. Nankivell, we see perhaps for the first time a depcition of Santa which is indistinguishable from that of the present day. Santa Claus as illustrated by Frank A. Nankivell in Puck , v. In this Canadian department store brochure from we see that Santa, with his black trimmed suit and bobble-less hat, was still able to deviate from his typical image.

Cover of the Eaton's department store Christmas catalogue for , showing an image of Santa Claus. Toronto, Canada - Source.

The illustrator Norman Rockwell, with his many depictions throughout the s, was a key player in cementing Santa's modern look. Here is an early illustration of his from before the First World War. A Japanese illustration from , showing the spread of the Santa legend had reached far wider than just Europe and America. Japanese illustration featuring Santa, artist unknown - Source. A poster by the U. Food Administration. Educational Division, Advertising Section, ca. Like Sundblom's depictions for Coca Cola more than a decade later, these pictures of Rockwell's give a very physiologically human and naturalistic aspect to the character as opposed to the more cartoonish features which had gone before.

Illustrated front cover from The Queenslander, December 25 - Source. In the U. It makes the speaker sound rather clever and cynical. Coca-Cola did start using Santa in advertising in But Santa had been portrayed almost exclusively in red from the early 19th century and most of his modern image was put together by cartoonist Thomas Nast in the s.

Even if you were to confine your search to Santa in American soft drinks adverts, you would find a thoroughly modern Santa Claus in the posters for White Rock that came out in Jingle Bells was written by James Pierpont in Pierpont was American and the song originally called One Horse Open Sleigh is about Thanksgiving, and about winter fun and frolics more generally.

How un-Christmassy it is can be gleaned from the other verses, which never make it into a British carol concert. Verse two goes like this:. The horse was lean and lank Misfortune seemed his lot He got into a drifted bank And we — we got upsot. Nor did I. There could have been two or Magi, by the way, were Zoroastrians.

Saturnalia was originally held on 17 December. Later it was expanded until it lasted all the way up to 23 December. But it never shared a date with Christmas. Some scholars now believe that it was actually written by Henry Livingston, Jr. In the poem, St. Nicholas is described "He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf" and as coming with "a miniature sleigh and eight tiny rein-deer". This was the first time we found out the names of the reindeer.

They became really well known in the song 'Rudolph the Red nosed Reindeer', written in Did you know that Rudolph and Santa's other reindeers might well be all girls!? Only female reindeer keep their antlers throughout winter. By Christmas time most males have discarded their antlers and are saving their energy ready to grow a new pair in the spring. Some people say that Santa lives at the North Pole. In Finland, they say that he lives in the north part of their country called Lapland. But everyone agrees that he travels through the sky on a sledge that is pulled by reindeer, that he comes into houses down the chimney at night and places presents for the children in socks or bags by their beds, in front of the family Christmas tree, or by the fire place.

Most children receive their presents on Christmas Eve night or early Christmas morning, but in some countries they get their presents on St. Nicholas' Eve, December 5th. Nicholas putting the bag of gold into a stocking is probably where the custom of having a tangerine or satsuma at the bottom of your Christmas stocking came from. If people couldn't afford gold, some golden fruit was a good replacement - and until the last 50 years these were quite unusual fruits and so still special!

The biggest Christmas stocking was 51m 35cm ft 5. Just think how many presents you could fit in that! Long before coke had been invented, St Nicholas had worn his Bishop's red robes. During Victorian times and before that, he wore a range of colors red, green, blue and brown fur but red was always his favorite! In this he was wearing a 'Stars and Stripes' outfit! Over the next 20 years Thomas Nast continued to draw Santa every Christmas and his works were very popular indeed he must have been very good friends with Santa to get such good access!

This is when Santa really started to develop his big tummy and the style of red and white outfit he wears today. Nicholas' and the illustrations from 'Old Santeclaus with Much Delight'. On January 1st , Harper's Weekly published Nast's most famous image of Santa, complete with a big red belly, an arm full of toys and smoking a pipe! This image of Santa became very popular, with more artists drawing Santa in his red and white costume from to Santa was first used in Coke adverts in the , with the classic 'Coke Santa' being drawn by artist Haddon Sundblom.

He took the idea of Nast's Santa but made him even more larger than life and jolly, replaced the pipe with a glass of Coke and created the famous Coke holding Santa!