whatilearned
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/dec/21/coca-cola-didnt-invent-santa-the-10-biggest-christmas-myths-debunked
TIL that the narrative that Coca-Cola designed the modern Santa Claus as part of an advertising campaign is not true, because Coca-Cola did start using Santa in advertising in 1933. But Santa had been portrayed almost exclusively in red from the early 19th century
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The poem “A Visit From Saint Nicholas” from 1823 created a lot of what we now think of as canon Santa lore. First mention of a sleigh pulled by reindeer, for example.
You could have just asked
https://www.coca-colacompany.com/faqs/did-coca-cola-invent-santa
Lots of interesting fact in the linked article, the first myth debunked:
> 1 Coca-Cola designed the modern Santa Claus as part of an advertising campaign
>
>This is one you always hear at dinner parties. It makes the speaker sound rather clever and cynical. Except it’s tosh. Coca-Cola did start using Santa in advertising in 1933. [But Santa had been portrayed almost exclusively in red from the early 19th century](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2010/dec/16/christmas-music-familiarity-tradition) and most of his modern image was put together by cartoonist Thomas Nast in the 1870s. 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 1923.
Fk the klaus