'Twas The Night Before Christmas featuring a Coca-Cola Santa Tribute

Clement Clarke Moore (1779-1863) was a biblical scholar, a professor of Asian and Greek literature, an author, and a man who could converse in almost any language; but he is remembered as the person who first named Santa's reindeer. While most of his scholarly work is forgotten, a poem written as a holiday gift for his children has endured as one of the most beloved pieces of Christmas literature.

Inn 1930, famed Chicago commercial illustrator Haddon Sundblom painted a jolly, red-garbed Santa Claus for the Coca-Cola Company's 1931 Christmas advertising campaign, beginning a tradition that continues to this day. Sundblom may not have realized it at the time, but his depictions of the Coca-Cola Santa, issued annually from 1931 to 1964, formed America's perception of what Santa Claus looks like. Prior to that time, the image of Santa in the United States varied as widely as its melting pot of immigrants' memories of Father Christmas from their native countries.