Santa Claus by Haddon Sundblom -- Part 2

For most of my younger days (the late 50's and the 60's), every time Christmas rolled around, the Coca-Cola Bottling Company rolled out a new full-color Christmas ad in all the national magazines.  The ads featured what became the definitive image of Santa Claus as rendered by the brilliant artist Haddon Sundblom.

Below, four of Sundblom's non-Coca-Cola Santa images.  

                                 Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

Santa Claus by Haddon Sundblom

When I was a kid, one of the things I looked forward to at Christmastime was the annual Coca-Cola advertisement created by the remarkable illustrator Haddon Sundblom.   Clement Moore's 1823 poem "A Visit from St. Nicholas" may have describe the jolly old elf in detail, and Thomas Nast's 1881 caricature of Saint Nick may have brought the image of Santa into focus, but not until the middle of the 20th century did one artist perfect the image of Santa and make it stick.  That artist was Michigan-native Haddon Sundblom (1899-1976), who created expressive paintings of the magical Mr. Claus for the Coca-Cola Company over a period of 33 years.  Here are three of my favorite Sundblom Santa ads...

 

 

 

 

 

"Batman: The Animated Series" Christmas Card -- 1992

This was the 1992 Christmas card sent out by Warner Bros. Animation.  "Batman:  the Animated Series" had premiered just a few months earlier.  This beautiful and funny holiday scene was created by Bruce Timm.   I had a few copies matted then sought out the autographs of some of the directors, writers and producers on the series.