Everyone knows who you’re talking about when you say Santa Claus- a sweet old man, dressed in a furry outfit, black boots, with a big white beard, who gives presents to all of the good boys and girls. Picture him- is he wearing red? Would you be surprised to learn that Santa has more than one color to his name?
The popular misconception is that Santa is red because of Coca Cola advertising in the 1940s and 1950s. However St. Nick was seen numerous times before this era wearing red, and it had nothing to do with Coke. In reality, Santa has worn several different garments and colors throughout the years. But to know the reason for the red outfit we need to go back in time and see the whole timeline of Santa.
In the late 1700s, shopping in NYC was essentially like Black Friday riots. After a few years of madness, a group of middle class workers in 1804 had enough and created a historical society that was to celebrate the new benevolent symbol of their city and to mourn the anniversary of the death of St. Nicholas. The days they celebrate are, Dec 5-6, and is still seen as the day for present giving in some European countries.
If you’ve seen The Office, then you may remember Dwight dressing up as Sinterklaas for Christmas- this character wasn’t made up for the show! Sinterklaas is the Dutch Santa, and is still giving presents to children in Europe on Dec 5-6 every year. The way Santa got to the US is when many Dutch travelers went to NYC, and they brought Sinterklaas- later changed to Santa Claus- with them.
Santa was fleshed out in the years after 1804, giving him different looks in the media each year. Sometimes he was smoking (as it was a common and enjoyed activity in the day), sometimes holding children, and more importantly, wearing different colors. One example is when in a rerelease of “The Night Before Christmas” (a poem) in 1864, Santa wore all YELLOW (even his sack was yellow).
During the Civil War (1861-1865), Santa was seen wearing BLUE and gave presents to the Union soldiers, who also wore blue uniforms. Santa started wearing red around the end of the 1860s and beginning of the 1870s. The artist, Thomas Nash, having portrayed the character for years in “The Stars and Stripes” newspaper during the Civil War, also showed him wearing green. However, his drawing of the jolly man in 1881 was unofficially crowned as a portrait, where he wore his famous red suit.
The colors of his suit have flickered between then and now and depending on where you are in the world, but almost all media in the US have Santa as red now, even being featured in songs and videos now as well.
Back to the Coca Cola myth of red- it is not UNTRUE, but it’s not the sole reason. By the time we got to Coke advertising in the 20s/30s/40s, Santa had already been established as red. However, Coke used their bottle to compliment Mr. Claus with astounding success, and has used Santa in their winter advertising for almost 100 years.