Why does Santa wear red
While this may come as a surprise to many people around the world Santa Claus (also known as “Father Christmas”, “Saint Nicholas”, “Chris Cringle” or any other local name) did not always wear red. In fact, being a derivation of the pagan (non-Christian) character the “green man” Santa was originally clothed in green and did not deliver presents to people – even this aspect was not adopted into the Santa Claus mythos until the Victorian era. In fact he was not even “fat and jolly” until more recent years, originally being a relatively skinny individual seen in the winter.
Santa’s depiction as a round, jolly man clothed in red owes its popular origins not to traditional values but to one of the most successful marketing campaigns in history. Depicted in red as a welcoming old man in roughly 1890 by an unknown artist, Santa was adopted by the then young Coca-Cola company as a representation of their brand in winter times. Many feel that the choice of red was based upon his title of “Saint Nicholas”, with red being the color of choice for many church officials and thus helping to establish a better image for Santa than his original green. The late 1800’s also saw the rise of traditional holiday cards. Though they didn’t originally include the fat, jolly Santa, they followed suit and included him shortly thereafter due to the growing popularity of the red-clad Saint Nick in popular culture.
Due to his red and white outfit that complemented Coca-Cola’s company colors the partnership between the two “entities” helped establish both the company as well as the Santa Claus image as a welcome aspect each and every Christmas. In fact it is for this very reason that other competitors on the market such as Pepsi cannot utilize the Santa image in their own marketing even today.
Further uses of the Santa Claus image once it was initially developed and promoted by Coca-Cola helped to further establish itself in the minds of the people. The popular poem “The Night Before Christmas” is commonly cited as one of the strongest foundations for the Santa Claus mythos and the depiction used by the author of Santa Claus in the book further helped establish the expected norm of Santa being a large, warm and welcoming individual clothed in red that delivers presents to good children each year.