Santa suit Santa suit A Santa suit is a costume worn by a person portraying Santa Claus. The modern American version of the suit can be attributed to the work of Thomas Nast for "Harper's Weekly" magazine, although it is often correctly thought that Haddon Sundblom designed the suit in his advertising work for The Coca-Cola Company. Sundblom's work did standardize the western image of Santa, and popularized the image of the red suit with white fur trim. This has become the image of the American Santa, while in some European countries where Saint Nicholas remains popular, the outfit worn is closer
Thomas Nast referred to by President Abraham Lincoln as "our best recruiting sergeant". After the war, Nast strongly opposed the Reconstruction policy of President Andrew Johnson, whom he depicted in a series of trenchant cartoons that marked "Nast's great beginning in the field of caricature". Nast's cartoons frequently had numerous sidebars and panels with intricate subplots to the main cartoon. A Sunday feature could provide hours of entertainment and highlight social causes. After 1870, Nast favored simpler compositions featuring a strong central image. He based his likenesses on photographs. In the early part of his career, Nast used a brush and ink