Pub trivia: Santa
Santa
Who'd have thought parents would encourage their offspring to perch on a strange man's knee and even pay for the privilege. But Jolly St Nick has managed just that with cheeky smile… and the avoidance of Jeremy Kyle. Here are some Santa based facts for you to retell over some turkey and Christmas pudding.
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Fact
In the 1860s, Thomas Nast first depicted Santa as a portly old man wearing a red suit with a leather belt in his illustrations for Harper's Weekly. Nast was asked by Abraham Lincoln to do an illustration of Santa with the Union troops. Seeing Santa side with the North proved highly demoralising for the Confederate army.
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Fact
In 1931, an ad for Coca Cola featured Santa in his red and white suit with a long white beard – leading to the myth that Coke invented the popular image of Father Christmas.
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Fact
In 1822, Clement Clarke Moore wrote the poem 'The Night Before Christmas' in which Santa was first known to climb down the chimney to deliver gifts. Here, Santa was depicted as a 'jolly old elf' covered in soot who arrives on a miniature sleigh pulled by eight tiny reindeer.
