# Did the popular image of Santa Claus originate in a Coca-Cola ad campaign?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-popular-image-of-santa-claus-originate-in-a-coca-cola-ad-campaign/44218>\
**Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\
**Created:** [December 6, 2000, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-popular-image-of-santa-claus-originate-in-a-coca-cola-ad-campaign/44218 "2000-12-06T00:13:55Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![andros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e480ec/32.png) [@andros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andros)\
**Post date:** [December 8, 2000, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-popular-image-of-santa-claus-originate-in-a-coca-cola-ad-campaign/44218/21 "2000-12-08T00:44:06Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> …A MINIATURE sleigh, draw by eight TINY reindeer…

[sub]Damn[/sub]  
Er, he grew. Yes, that’s it. He shrinks everything down while he travels, so he can fit all the presents in. Then when he gets out of the sleigh he grows to . . . normal . . . human . . . size . . . . . .

Aw, crap.

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**Author:** ![trose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f9ae1b/32.png) [@trose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/trose)\
**Post date:** [December 11, 2000, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-popular-image-of-santa-claus-originate-in-a-coca-cola-ad-campaign/44218/22 "2000-12-11T17:00:58Z")

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If I may digress (a much more civilized word than hijack, don’t you think?) …

Where did the reindeer come from? More specifically, where do their names derive from? Any reference to the whole roll call before Moore? And most importantly, _Vixen_? Was Santa a little kinky?

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