How the mythical character of Santa got popularized

We can comprehend from the various influences, Santa Claus epitomizes a hybrid characterization at best – borrowed from various sources. In this regard, there was no uniform portrayal of Santa even up till the first three decades of the 20th century. And, one company took advantage of this disarrayed scope of symbolism, by making the Santa in his flowing beard and red apparel much popular than it was ever before. The company’s name is Coca Cola, and they ‘universalized’ the red-and-white garbed father figure in a series of painted advertisements illustrated by Haddon Sundblom, starting from the year 1931.

But this doesn’t necessarily mean that Santa was never portrayed in his famous red-and-white cloths before 1931. As a matter of fact, another beverage company White Rock Beverages used this familiar image for their drawn advertisements since 1915. However, Coca Cola’s promotional caliber was far more predominant (and thus culturally accepted) – since before the 30’s, Santa could also appear in variety of other ensembles with hues ranging from blue, green to brown and mauve.