Interesting, thanks Eutychus.
I could have sworn that the modern image was created by the Coca Cola company but I bow before the grand people at Snopes. Anyone else hear about the original Santa type of figure in the Rennaissance or before being what Christians took over as the image of the modern devil? I still can’t find a link to that and am now wondering how much if any of a hoax that may be too.
HUGS!
Sqrl
from:www.philaprintshop.com
“Amongst the most
famous of the illustrators who worked for the magazine (Harpers) was Thomas Nast, ‘father of American political
cartooning.’ During the second half of the nineteenth century, Nast became the most significant illustrator of
American political and social issues. His pointed cartoons exerted a great impact on public opinion. More
than a mere cartoonist, Nast was an innovator of images, popularizing or instituting many now familiar
subjects such as the Republican elephant, the Democratic donkey, John Bull, Uncle Sam, and Columbia.
Perhaps his most lasting creation was the image of Santa Claus,(in 1863) that he modeled from Clement Moore’s St.
Nicholas in his ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas and which serves as our present day jolly elf.”