Amsterdam/New York: Santa Claus is the Child of Global Cities (part 4)

New York illustrators would take care of the rest: Thomas Nast depicted Santa Claus, still short-legged and pipe-smoking, as a Northern hero (he first appeared to comfort Lincoln’s soldiers), and from 1885 onward, as a resident of the North Pole. Half a century later, Haddon Sundblom began the series of advertisements for a famous brownish soft drink that would cement the red-and-white costume of “Santa Claus” (1931-1964); the rest belongs to the history of the United States’ media power. But a small country covered with pine trees would manage to carve out a space in this epic.

Text : Translated from french version by Gilles Fumey

Image : Willgard