“The Coming of Santa Claus” illustration by Thomas Nast for Harper’s Weekly, December 1863. This appears to be the first time Santa was depicted with a white beard and red suit. Thomas Nast, along with Clement Clarke Moore’s poem “A Visit from St. Nicholas”, helped to create the modern image of Santa Claus. Some modern ideas of Santa Claus seemingly became canon after the anonymous publication of the poem “A Visit From St. Nicholas” in the Troy, New York, Sentinel on 23 December 1823. Moore’s Santa is described as being “chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf” with “a little round belly”, that “shook when he laughed like a bowlful of jelly.” His reindeer were named: Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Dunder and Blixem. Besides the sleigh that lands on a roof, Santa climbs down the the chimney qitrh a bag full of toys. The polar beer and Coke logo came later.