Who illustrated Coca-Cola’s modern Santa Claus image beginning in 1931?

Haddon Sundblom illustrated Coca-Cola’s modern Santa Claus image beginning in 1931.

Coca-Cola commissioned Sundblom to create a warm, human, and cheerful Santa for its holiday advertising. His paintings showed Santa as a friendly, rosy-cheeked figure with a full white beard, a substantial red suit, and an expressive face. The campaign helped make this version especially influential in twentieth-century popular culture.

Sundblom did not invent Santa Claus or the idea of Santa wearing red. Earlier illustrations, poems, and advertisements had already established many of those traits. Coca-Cola’s contribution was the scale and consistency with which Sundblom’s images were distributed.

The original models included Sundblom himself and, later, people he knew. The advertisements often placed Santa in domestic scenes, enjoying Coca-Cola while delivering presents. This linked the beverage with family celebrations without making the character a Coca-Cola mascot in the legal sense.