How the Jolly Imagery of Santa Claus Came To Be

“Merry Old Santa Claus” by Thomas Nast, 1863. Public Domain

The legend of Santa Claus is centuries old, but the jolly guy’s use of the North Pole as home base for making toys, checking his list of good girls and boys, and prepping for his Christmas Eve rounds has only been common knowledge for just over 150 years.

The North Pole was first identified as Santa’s home by Thomas Nast. Nast was a 19th-century German-born caricaturist who did editorial cartoons depicting the contemporary politics of his time. Commonly referred to as the Father of the American Cartoon, his background seems antithetical to someone doing detailed illustrations of Santa Claus, elves, and reindeer. Yet how we see Santa Claus and the North Pole today is a direct influence of Thomas Nast’s Christmas illustrations.

A photograph of Thomas Nast drawing two caricatures, circa 1888. Gift of Thomas Nast Jr., Mabel Nast Crawford, and Cyril Nast; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Public Domain

Why the North Pole?

In 1866, the North Pole was as much of a fantasy as Santa Claus. No one had yet seen the North Pole, and the faraway land of ice and snow had attained an almost mythical status. During the 1840s and 1850s, there were several highly publicized Arctic expeditions that stirred the public’s imagination and curiosity about the unknown land up north.

Secondly, snow was already a universal symbol of Christmas, so what better place for Santa to experience Christmas throughout the year than someplace where it snows year round?

Clement Moore had already established that reindeer were Santa’s chosen mode of transportation in his classic poem “‘Twas the Night Before Christmas,” and reindeer are well acclimated to the frosty environment found at the North Pole. Also, the North Pole was geographically isolated, politically neutral, and at the top of the world.

For all these reasons, Nast began promoting the North Pole as the home of Santa Claus and his toy workshop in the December 29, 1866, issue of Harper’s Weekly.

Three years after Harper’s Weekly published “Santa Claus and his Works,” a poem by the same name written by George P. Webster included a color collection of Nast’s drawings in a children’s book. The poem read that Santa’s home “was near the North Pole, in the ice and snow,” further cementing the top of the world as Santa’s year-long domicile.

His first year at Harper’s Weekly, Nast began drawing Christmas-inspired illustrations— including “Christmas Eve” of 1862, which became an instant sensation. Inside the wreathed frames, a wife gazes at the moon praying for her husband, while her husband, on picket duty in the Union Army, stares longingly at photographs of his family. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Public Domain

How Thomas Nast Became Santa’s Helper

Nast was born in a military barracks in Bavaria, Germany, on September 27, 1840. His father Joseph Thomas Nast was a musician in a regimental band who, after becoming disenchanted with the Bavarian government, sent his wife Appolonia and two children to New York in 1846 before joining them after his enlistment ended four years later.

Young Nast struggled with schooling but was passionate about drawing. At age 14, he studied under German émigré Theodore Kaufmann before enrolling in the National Academy of Design. By age 15, he worked as a draftsman for Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, a literary and news magazine founded in 1855. In 1862, he joined the staff of Harper’s Weekly, a political magazine with numerous illustrations covering foreign and domestic news, fiction, essays, and humor. Numerous periodicals of that period used illustrators to sketch current events since photography was neither a quick nor easy process at the time.

Illustration of “Christmas Station,” with a note on the chimney reading “Santa Claus Stop Here Please,” by Thomas Nast, 1889. Library of Congress. Public Domain

During the Civil War, Nast was known for allegorical and emblematic depictions of the Civil War. He began drawing Christmas illustrations for Harper’s Weekly his first year on the staff, including an instant sensation titled “Christmas Eve 1862.” The drawing depicted two wreaths. The wreath on the left framed the image of a soldier’s wife gazing at the moon praying for her husband, and inside the second wreath on the right, her husband is in front of a campfire staring longingly at photographs of his family while on picket duty in the Union Army.

Nast’s illustrations, especially his Christmas illustrations, quickly captured the public’s interest and appealed to the magazine’s readers. From 1863 to 1886, Nast submitted 33 Christmas-themed illustrations to the magazine, but it was in a double page, 20-vignette collage appearing as a centerfold in the December 29, 1866, issue entitled “Santa Claus and his Works” that the North Pole was first introduced as Santa’s headquarters.

The collage included vignettes that offered details about Santa’s life still in vogue today, including Santa in his workshop, Santa hanging stockings, and Santa perusing a book listing the names of good boys and girls. One vignette depicted Santa looking through a magic telescope “on the lookout for good children.”

The poem “Santa Claus and his Works,” written by George P. Webster, circa 1869, was inspired by Nast’s 20-vignette centerfold in the Dec. 29, 1866, edition of Harper’s Weekly. Webster’s “Santa Claus and his Works” included a color collection of Nast’s drawings in a children’s book. Public Domain

A Right Jolly Old Elf 

Before Nast’s artistic interpretation, Santa was seen as a stern figure who judged children. He was tall, thin, and a rigid disciplinarian. By the mid-1800s, Americans idealized a pleasant kind of domestic life, big on sentimentality and tenderness.

Borrowing partly from the musings of W. Clement Moore and others, Nast illustrated Santa as more portly with a ruddy nose and snow white beard. Nast’s artwork was done as black and white wood engravings, so the colored illustrations portraying Santa in a red suit may have first appeared in the “Santa Claus and his Works” children’s book. Today, Santa is usually pictured in a red suit trimmed in white fur at the collar and cuffs, with a black belt and boots and a soft red cap also trimmed in white fur. He is cheerful, grandfatherly, and sometimes is bespectacled and smokes a pipe.

Nast’s depictions of Santa have proven timeless. When Coca-Cola began using Santa Claus in its promotional ads in the 1930s, the only significant difference from Nast’s illustrations was removing Santa’s pipe. The Santa likeness in the Coke ads was so similar to that of Nast’s created half a century earlier that many today mistakenly believe that the soft drink manufacturer is responsible for what Santa looks like.

Before Nast’s Christmas illustrations, Santa Claus was more of a symbol of holiday goodwill. Nast’s talent and imagination helped give Santa a personality and a home at the top of the world.

This article was originally published in American Essence magazine.