Who owns santa

University professors in business and communications faculties around the world love to tell their students this story. In , Coca-Cola printed an image of Saint Claus dressed in red on its soft drink bottles. This shrewd business move by an American company is one of the greatest marketing success stories in history. It subsequently gave rise to the Christmas myth that Coke owns the Santa Claus image.

But it's not true! Even though Coca-Cola originated some of the character's defining features, the company is not the author and therefore has no copyright on that character. Santa Claus ultimately originates from the Christian feast day of Saint Nicholas. In , one of the first descriptions of the Santa Claus we know now can be found in a poem by William Gilley. In it he described Santa Claus dressed in fur and riding on a sleigh pulled by reindeer.

He portrays Santa Claus as being chubby, funny, with a long white beard, together a reindeer pulled sleigh on a roof. When asked to paint some of his works, Nast chose the iconic red and white colours we know today.

The Nativity story — the story on the birth of Jesus of Nazareth — can, of course be told to everyone. Moore poem. That said, there are clearly similarities between the Nast image and the Sundblom images. So, who owns the rights to Santa Claus? Well, while the Sundblom images are owned by the Coca Cola company I suspect , the Nast images appear to be in the public domain.

Does that help? I didn't think so. The better question is who owns the spirit of Saint Nicholas. Hopefully, the answer to that question is all of us. Moore Washinton Irving. I was making a futile attempt to sleep on Christmas Eve. I was staring out a window when I saw something fly through the sky that bore an awfully strong resemblance to Jolly Old St.

Nick and his sleigh. I jumped out of bed and ran screaming into the kitchen to report the news to my parents. Thirty years later, I can only imagine what was running through their heads as I excitedly told them about seeing Santa.

Anyways, it has become part of Michels family lore.