The story behind Coca-Cola's Santa and the artist who shaped Christmas

It is a generational December image displayed in locations around the city, region, and nation. 

Santa Claus may live at the North Pole, but he is forever associated with Coca-Cola and Atlanta. 

Credit: Courtesy Coca-Cola

Like the Mona Lisa, "Girl with the Pearl Earring," "Starry Night," "Les Demoiselles d'Avignon," and "Waterlilies," 200 years from today, Santa Claus clutching a Coca-Cola bottle will be just as iconic as those works of art. 

Surprisingly, the artist never visited our city or the headquarters of the great international beverage company in midtown.

Haddon Sundblom, the Michigan native of Scandinavian descent, never met with Coca-Cola czar and Atlanta influencer Robert W. Woodruff.

The executive who hired the artist was St. Louis-based advertising legend Archie Lee at the D’Arcy agency.

“He (Lee) was particularly close with Robert Woodruff and was responsible for many successful campaigns, including the 'Pause that Refreshes,'” stated Caitlin Smith Bowron, Archives Manager for the Coca-Cola Company.

There is little archival evidence of interaction between Mr. Woodruff and Mr. Lee with the artist.

“The only concrete documentation we have of their relationship is from a letter written by Haddon Sundblom to Coca-Cola historian and exec Wilbur Kurtz Jr. in 1955,” revealed Ms. Smith Bowron.

“....at that time I hadn’t the slightest idea of the philosophy of Coca-Cola Advertising...,” penned Mr. Sundblom.

Credit: Courtesy Coca-Cola

Born in Muskegon and art trained in Chicago, he began working for the bottling company in 1924; seven years later Mr. Sundblom would change Christmas. Goodbye to milk and cookies, hello Coca-Cola.

He was tasked with rejuvenating Santa (1931).

According to the Coca-Cola company:

“For inspiration, Mr. Sundblom turned to Clement Clarke Moore's 1822 poem 'A Visit From St. Nicholas' (commonly called ' 'Twas the Night Before Christmas').”

Mr. Sundblom's Santa Claus firmly established the larger-than-life, grandfatherly Claus as a key figure in American Christmas imagery, rosy cheeks, round belly, and glowing eyes. 

A massive hit to lift the sagging Christmas spirit of a Depression-era America, the advertisement slogan used, "My Hat's Off To The Pause That Refreshes."

For the next 33 years, Mr. Sundblom painted portraits of Santa that helped to create the modern image of Santa — an interpretation that today lives on in the minds of people of all ages, all over the world.

The artist hired a retired salesman, Lou Prentiss, as his model in the early years. When Mr. Prentiss passed away, Haddon himself became Santa.

Mr. Sundblom also worked for Hugh Hefner at Playboy.  

In the mid-1930s, he began to paint pin-ups, glamour pieces for calendars and eventually a Playboy Magazine cover (1972).

More than any artist, including Norman Rockwell, Mr. Sundblom defined the American Dream in pictures.

Among his still-living legacy is the Quaker Oats man, posed by his friend and colleague, Harold W. McCauley.

Mr. Sundblom died in 1976.

His Santa Claus lives forever.

Credit: From Coca-Cola