Christmas drew a new image of "Santa Claus" annually, beginning in 1863. By the 1880s, Nast's Santa had evolved into the modern vision of the figure, perhaps based on the English figure of Father Christmas. The image was standardized by advertisers in the 1920s and continues through the present day. Father Christmas, a jolly, stout, bearded man who typified the spirit of good cheer at Christmas, predates the Santa Claus character. He is first recorded in early 17th century England, but was associated with holiday merrymaking and drunkenness rather than the bringing of gifts. In Victorian Britain, his image was remade
Thomas Nast publisher of "Wilkes' Spirit of the Times". A few months later, as artist for "The Illustrated London News", he joined Garibaldi in Italy. Nast's cartoons and articles about the Garibaldi military campaign to unify Italy captured the popular imagination in the U.S. In February 1861, he arrived back in New York. In September of that year, he married Sarah Edwards, whom he had met two years earlier. He left the "New York Illustrated News" to work again, briefly, for "Frank Leslie's Illustrated News". In 1862, he became a staff illustrator for "Harper's Weekly". In his first years with "Harper's", Nast