By Val R. Berryman

When the name Santa Claus is mentioned anywhere in America today, the image that invariably comes to mind is the one created by Muskegon native Haddon H. Sundblom. Almost every year from 1931 to 1964 he painted new illustrations for the Coca-Cola Company to use in its Christmas advertising. Sundblom’s Coca-Cola Santa appeared on billboards, point-of-purchase store displays and the back covers of such magazines as National Geographic, Saturday Evening Post and Life. The Coca-Cola Company’s large advertising budget ensured that Sundblom’s distinctive vision of Santa received massive exposure across the country and around the world.

Haddon Hubbard Sundblom was born in Muskegon, Michigan, on June 22, 1899, the youngest of nine children. Sundblom’s father, once a shipbuilder in Finland, was said to have passed on to his son such traits as attention to detail and the determination to finish a job. Sundblom’s mother died when he was thirteen and in the sixth grade. A year later he quit school and headed for Chicago, where he held office jobs with several contractors. While there, he attended night classes in art and architecture at several local schools, intending to become an architect.

At nineteen, Sundblom changed his mind and decided that art would be his life’s work. He attended classes at the Art Institute of Chicago and the American Academy of Art. From paintings created in class and on Sundays, Sundblom built a strong portfolio of work that in 1920 earned him an apprenticeship with the commercial art studio of Charles Everett Johnson. As an office boy, Sundblom ran errands, cleaned brushes and mixed paints for the professional artists there. But he watched the artists working, studying their techniques to improve his painting skills.

In 1925 Sundblom joined his colleagues Howard Stevens and Edwin Henry to open their own agency, called Stevens, Sundblom and Henry, in downtown Chicago’s Wrigley Building. During the years before the Depression, Chicago was America’s premiere advertising city, attracting the country’s best illustrators. Talented young artists with a wide variety of skills flocked to Sundblom’s agency.

As artistic director, Sundblom’s six-foot, three-inch frame and booming voice assured his opinion was heard amid the lusty discussions that ensued during various projects. Advice and criticism were willingly shared by everyone. Sundblom later said, “It was an unusual studio, where its members without conscious effort or charitable impulse—but rather with a spontaneous spirit of good will—inspired each other. It was where we learned that the best returns came from the mutual sharing of our various abilities.” A great many alumni of the “Sundblom circle” themselves became well-known illustrators.

One of Sundblom’s earliest commissions was a Packard ad in 1926 for the Austin Bement Company, a Detroit advertising agency. He also painted ads for Ford, Lincoln, Pierce-Arrow and Marmon. It was about this time that Sundblom, according to The American Artist, received his first great push up the ladder by setting the pattern and style for Coca-Cola’s advertising—a style that continued for over thirty years.

Sundblom’s nickname, Sunny, undoubtedly from his sur-name, also reflected his artistic style and content. His paintings were bright and romantic, his characters wholesome and healthy. His men and women were pleasant and desirable; his children were adorable. Sundblom created such advertising icons as the Quaker Men and Aunt Jemima for the Quaker Oats Company. In 1942 he concocted Sprite Boy, a lively child with a bottle-cap hat and appealing smile to promote Coca-Cola. He developed artwork for Maxwell House coffee, Palmolive, Cashmere Bouquet and Camay soaps, Cream of Wheat cereal, Whitman chocolates, Goodyear Tires, several beer and whiskey companies and the U.S. Marine Corps.

Since the early nineteenth century Santa Claus had been depicted as a gnome, clothed in green, blue, white or the more traditional red. When Sundblom was approached to create a more realistic, more human Santa, he based his depiction partly on the Santa described in Clement Moore’s 1822 poem, “Twas the Night Before Christmas.” Moore’s Santa had a “broad face and a round little belly” and was “chubby and plump” with a jolly disposition.

Sundblom already had been working on Coca-Cola accounts for several years when he created his first Santa Claus for the company’s 1931 Christmas advertisement. Like Moore’s Santa, he was plump and grandfatherly with twinkling eyes and a hearty laugh. His beard was full and white, with fur trim on his red suit to match. Santa’s red-and-white outfit mirrored the same colors of the Coca-Cola logo. Sundblom’s Santa usually wore a wide, tan leather belt with a brass buckle and tan boots with a folded leather cuff rather than fur trim. Probably most distinctive was Santa’s black eyebrows, which contrasted with his snow-white hair.

Originally Sundblom’s model for Santa Claus was his neighbor, retired salesman Lou Prentice, who embodied Santa’s features and spirit—the wrinkles in his face were from his smiles and laughs. Santa’s dark eyebrows, however, were modeled after Sundblom’s own. When Prentice died, the artist searched far and wide without success for a new model. Finally a friend suggested Sundblom use his own face. “As I took a closer look at my mug,” Sundblom remarked in the December 1953 Refresher, “I realized a cartoon-like resemblance to Lou. Since that time I have been using my own face as a model for Santa Claus.”

Other family members appeared in Sundblom’s Yuletide paintings. His wife, Elizabeth, was his model for Mrs. Claus. Sundblom’s three daughters, fifteen grandchildren and numerous friends and neighbors appeared as characters who helped Santa charm his audience into drinking Coca-Cola. Sundblom valued Elizabeth’s criticism of his work, remarking that she often made helpful suggestions.

During the thirty-five years Sundblom painted him, the Coca-Cola Santa always offered a theme each Christmas season. During World War II Santa carried war bonds in his sack and, as he surveyed the troubled globe, drank a toast to all Gis. In 1951 Santa sat in his office, pausing for a Coke as he studied his records of good children. Two years later a brother and sister left their beloved Christmas visitor his favorite soft drink for his midnight snack instead of cookies and milk. By 1958 Santa and Coca-Cola were selling the idea of relaxation and refreshment in a poster entitled “Santa’s pause,” which showed Santa holding a Coke as he kicks off his boots, then settles into an easy chair.

More than forty of Sundblom’s original oil paintings of Santa have been preserved in the Coca-Cola Company archives in Atlanta, Georgia. A fast painter, Sundblom applied layer upon layer of wet paint, leaving free and flowing brush strokes of rich color. He was especially adept at depicting light glowing through the dark, caramel-colored drink and the aqua green glass of the Coke bottle. Ironically, Sundblom did not relish the soft drink he promoted. In a 1974 interview with Rolling Stone reporter Lawrence Dietz, Sundblom confessed, “I never could stand the stuff.”

Sundblom usually worked alone on the eighth floor of his Michigan Avenue studio in Chicago. Never one to adhere to a set schedule, he worked four hours one day or sixteen to twenty the next if a deadline had to be met. “If I have to work all night, I work all night,” he once observed.

Sundblom received many honors during his career. He was awarded gold and silver medals from the Art Directors Club and the Society of Illustrators, which he was a member of for twenty-five years. He was posthumously inducted into the Illustrators Hall of Fame on June 25, 1987.

Haddon Sundblom’s last two Santa paintings were completed in 1964 after Coca-Cola decided to concentrate its advertising dollars in television instead of print media. He kept busy with assignments from other clients, portraits from private companies and other commissions. A strong individualist, Sundblom enjoyed music, golf and sports. While working on a portrait of Christ, he fell ill and died on March 10, 1976 in Chicago.

Today the Coca-Cola Company continues using Sundblom’s Santa Claus. Many of his Santa paintings have toured museums and art institutes around the world. The smiling figure still appears regularly on posters and in magazines, newspapers, calendars, Christmas tree ornaments, serving trays and glassware. After sixty-four year, Haddon Sundblom’s Santa still delights millions of adults and children alike.