[paul.fr]

I know christmas has passed, but still the questions persist.

Is the image of a fat jolly santa in his clothes really just what the PR people at coca cola  thought up?

[Bass]

It's no worse than putting penguins and polar bears together.

[another_someone]

Can't find any reference to Coca Cola in anything regarding Santa Claus, let alone with regard to Saint Nicholas of Myra (the Turkish city of Demre, the modern city that was Myra, now has even erected a statue of an archetypal Santa Claus).



Modern Santa Claus seems to be part Dutch, part British, and blended in America.


Santa Claus in 1863.

[techmind]

The standard reference useful to check the validity or otherwise of so-called "urban legends" is www.snopes.com

http://www.snopes.com/cokelore/santa.asp

Claim: The modern image of Santa Claus -- a jolly figure in a red-and-white suit -- was created by Coca-Cola
Status: False

The article concludes:

All this isn't to say that Coca-Cola didn't have anything to do with cementing that image of Santa Claus in the public consciousness.  The Santa image may have been standardized before Coca-Cola adopted it for their advertisements, but Coca-Cola had a great deal to do with establishing Santa Claus as a ubiquitous Christmas figure in America at a time when the holiday was still making the transition from a religious observance to a largely secular and highly commercial celebration.  In an era before color television (or commercial television of any kind), color films, and the widespread use of color in newspapers, it was Coca-Cola's magazine advertisements, billboards, and point-of-sale store displays that exposed nearly everyone in America to the modern Santa Claus image.  Coca-Cola certainly helped make Santa Claus one of the most popular men in America, but they didn't invent him.

[rosalind dna]

It is true actually, I had looked into this last year just out of interest
and remembered this one.
The reason that Santa Claus is clad in Red and White is because in the early part of the 20th century.

The Coca Cola company used him in their advertising to bring him to be noticed
by children and others when shopping mainly. Is partly false and true, as these sites say.
Also Santa Claus' name is a derivation from St. Nicholas, the giver of gifts
to small children as Santa does now.In the way that we all recognise him.

http://www.thecoca-colacompany.com/heritage/cokelore_santa.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Claus
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7152054.stm

[Karen W.]

I have a Coca Cola can somewhere with a picture of Santa Clause on it! from several years ago.. LOL thats about the only thing I have ever seen related to Coca Cola! LOL..  Thats interesting though!

[Bass]

Did you know that Coca-Cola produces a limited number of glass Christmas bottles every year?  They are stamped with "Christmas" and the year on the bottom of the bottle.  A friend and I were mucking about in an old burned-out cabin a few years ago, and he found a 1923 Christmas bottle.  Don't know what it was worth- he worked for Coca-Cola so decided not to sell it.

[Karen W.]

Thats a real old one!

[rosalind dna]

LOL LOL LOL

[tony6789]

they were just bored one day