No, Coca-Cola Didn't Invent Santa's Red Suit

Every December, the myth resurfaces like clockwork: Coca-Cola invented Santa's red suit. It's one of those "facts" that feels plausible enough to repeat at holiday parties, cynical enough to seem sophisticated. There's just one problem—it's completely false.

Santa's been rocking red since the 1800s, long before anyone thought to pair him with a bottle of Coke.

Thomas Nast Drew the Blueprint

The real architect of modern Santa was Thomas Nast, a political cartoonist for Harper's Weekly. Starting in 1863, Nast illustrated Santa for the magazine over 33 times across two decades. His 1881 drawing "Merry Old Santa Claus" cemented the image we know today: rotund, jolly, and wearing a bright red suit trimmed with white fur.

Before Nast, Santa's outfit was tan or various colors. Nast made it red, and the look stuck.

Red Was Already Winning by the 1850s

Even before Nast's influential work, red was becoming Santa's signature color. By the 1850s and 1860s, depicting Santa in red had already become more popular than other colors. An 1868 advertisement for Sugar Plums by the US Confection Company of New York shows Santa in his red coat—60 years before Coca-Cola's first Santa ad.

The red suit appeared on Harper's Weekly covers at least 40 years before Haddon Sundblom ever picked up a paintbrush for Coca-Cola.

So What Did Coca-Cola Actually Do?

In the 1930s, Coca-Cola hired illustrator Haddon Sundblom to create Santa artwork for their holiday advertising campaigns. Sundblom's warm, grandfatherly Santa became wildly popular and appeared in Coke ads for over three decades.

Here's the key distinction: Coca-Cola didn't invent the image—they amplified it. Their massive global marketing machine took an existing cultural icon and broadcast it to every corner of the world. Sundblom standardized details and gave Santa a consistent, appealing personality, but the red suit? That was already there.

Even Coca-Cola acknowledges this. Phil Mooney, director of the company's Archives Department, stated plainly: "We do not claim the color of Santa's coat, though it has worked out well for us since red is so closely related to Coca-Cola."

Why the Myth Persists

The truth is messy. Santa Claus is an evolutionary figure, cobbled together from centuries of folklore, religious tradition, and cultural influences:

• Saint Nicholas of Myra (4th-century bishop)
• Dutch Sinterklaas traditions
• British Father Christmas
• German gift-bringer folklore
• Clement Clarke Moore's 1823 poem "A Visit from St. Nicholas"
• Thomas Nast's visual codification

We don't find that explanation satisfying. It's not a neat origin story with a single creator and a specific date. So instead, many of us cling to a tidier, more cynical narrative: that Santa's look was a corporate invention, cooked up in an advertising boardroom.

It's a perfect modern myth—skeptical of commercialism while ironically giving a corporation far more credit than it deserves. The real story is more interesting: Santa's image evolved organically over centuries, and Coca-Cola just happened to be really good at marketing someone else's idea.

The Takeaway

Next time someone brings up the Coca-Cola-created-Santa myth, you can set the record straight. Santa's red suit has been part of Christmas tradition since before your great-great-grandparents were born. Coke didn't create Santa—they just gave him better publicity than anyone else.

And honestly? That's still pretty impressive marketing.