THOMAS NAST SANTA CLAUS ILLUSTRATIONS

This illustration from Harper's Magazine from 1881 is the most famous Thomas Nast Santa Claus and the most reproduced.





1871 HARPER'S MAGAZINE







1874 HARPER'S MAGAZINE







1876 HARPER'S MAGAZINE







1979 HARPER'S MAGAZINE







1881 HARPER'S MAGAZINE

NAST CHRISTMAS CARTOONS

1863 HARPER'S MAGAZINE SOLDIER'S FURLOUGH







1860'S ILLUSTRATION NO FURLOUGH







1870 HARPER'S MAGAZINE ILLUSTRATION







HARPER'S MAGAZINE ILLUSTRATION JANUARY 1876







HARPER'S MAGAZINE ILLUSTRATION DECEMBER 1876







HARPER'S MAGAZINE ILLUSTRATION JANUARY 1879







HARPER'S ILLUSTRATION DECEMBER 1886

Happy snow couples

THOMAS NAST FAMOUS AMERICAN ILLUSTRATOR

Thomas Nast was a German immigrant to America. He started to work for Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper at a young age. In 1855 photographs could not be inserted into printed material so woodcuts, which were taken from pen and ink illustrations, were needed. At first Nast just illustrated stories, but soon he started creating political cartoons. Nast created the elephant and the donkey as symbols of the Republican and Democratic parties. Nast also helped bring down a corrupt New York City government. But Nast also drew yearly Christmas illustrations for Frank Leslie’s and other papers. These drawings are less well known than his Boss Tweed illustrations. But Nast deserves some credit for our modern interpretation of Santa Claus.



Nast was the first artist to illustrate The Night Before Christmas by Clement C. Moore. After he worked on that poem his Santa resembled the man in the poem. Since the poem and the artwork were so influential they became our modern interpretation of Santa Claus: a chubby, jolly man with a fur cap and flowing white hair. He delivers toys on Christmas Eve with the help of 8 flying reindeer.

I will be posting several Thomas Nast Christmas Cartoons over the next few posts.

CHRISTMAS AT MOUNT VERNON painting detail

MORE ARCHIES COMIC CHRISTMAS ISSUES

ARCHIE COMIC BOOKS CHRISTMAS ISSUES

1950'S CHRISTMAS ADS FOR WHISKEY

1940's CHRISTMAS ADS FOR WHISKEY

1950'S CHRISTMAS ADVERTISEMENTS

Christmas is a common time to get a new camera and in the 1950's cameras were very popular gifts.

FIRESTONE TIRES CHRISTMAS GIVEAWAYS

During the 1950's and 1960's many businesses gave away small items with purchase, to inspire customer loyalty and Christmas giveaways were relatively common. The Firestone company gave away some really nice items. For many years they released annual Christmas records. This were not cheap albums they featured some of the most prominent artists of the time.When I was growing up we had several of these albums in the house that we played every Christmas.

Another popular Firestone giveaway was a yearly comic book featuring Disney characters and some examples are shown below.

Early Christmas Cards

Today many Christmas cards feature snowmen, Santa Claus, the Nativity and other popular themes. But that was not the case for the early American Christmas cards, published starting in the 1870's. Floral themes were very popular and there was no indication, besides the written greeting, that these were Christmas cards. These are a few early examples.