Santa Claus has been portrayed in many varying forms for around 150 years, but the version most familiar to us as the fat, jolly red-suited man is actually the result of an advertising campaign. Haddon Sundblom, a commercial illustrator, was commissioned for an advertising campaign for Coca Cola that would have much longer lasting impact than he could imagine. Although some artists had previously illustrated simliar versions of Santa, Sundblom's images of Santa in Coca Cola advertisements in the 1930's through the 1960's were a hit, and cemented in the public mind what Santa looked like. Here are a sampling of the advertisements through the first 25 years of this campaign.

1934

1936

1939

1942

1947

1950

1951

1952

1953

1954

1955