Sunday, December 6, 2009

Dec 6th [Updated]

Today is Saint Nicholas day. Here in Switzerland we call him "Samichlaus" and he brings peanuts, tangerines and chocolate to the nice children around the 6th of December (not to be confused with "Christkind" (Baby Jesus) who brings the presents on Christmas Eve). He generally looks more like St. Nicholas, the original bishop of Myra, than Santa Claus. Most of the time he's wearing red, though.



According to legend, the now common red and white Santa Claus was created by Haddon Sundblom for Coca Cola in the year 1931 as you can see in this illustration (above) that first appeared in a Saturday Evening Post ad.

Now look at that famous Norman Rockwell title page (below) for a 1920 Saturday Evening Post. I've desaturated the whole image because it would have been too easy otherwise.


What color is Santa Claus wearing (not counting the white parts, of course)?
In case you are new, THIS is how it works.




A                         B                         C                         D

Well, it was a trick question, but then it was not...
 
The red-white Santa Claus already appeared during the 19th century alongside other color combinations and sizes (sometimes Santa himself was pictured as an elf). The Coca Cola Company isn't promoting their urban legend anymore, instead they attribute the red coat to Civil War cartoonist Thomas Nast.

5 comments:

Shannon Crissey said...

green?

Anonymous said...

A.

Aaron said...

C. I guessing at this point.

sunny kharbanda said...

Unless this is a trick question and Normal Rockwell really originated the red-and-white Santa outfit, my guess is C.

Soriah said...

It would be rather silly of me if I picked a color other than red for jolly ol' st. Nick, so my answer of course is "B."