Why does Santa wear red??

[kelly ann]

I have a question my husband, again, has put to me to ask if anyone knows why santa wears the colour red. He was told by someone he works with it has something to do with Coca Cola?? Maybe there is a thread for this somewhere but could someone please explain? Thanks:yahoo:

[dvdelf]

there is a thread here somewhere

[Christmasstar]

Santa's sleigh has two runners, two tons of toys and eight reindeer
Two plus two plus eight makes twelve.
There are twelve inches in a foot.
Rulers are a foot long.
Queen Elizabeth II is a ruler and is also the name of the largest ship that sails the seven seas.
Seas have fish and fish have fins.
The Finns fought the Russians and the Russians are red.
Santa is always Russian and that is why he is dressed in red!

[Annette1990]

I had read somewhere once that Santa used to wear green, then coca cola put a Holiday commercial out and santa was in a red suit...and as the saying goes the rest is history.

[Michael Rielly]

Santa Claus is a decedent of Nicholas of Myra a.k.a Saint Nicholas. Nicholas of Myra was first a Catholic Priest and later became a Bishop. As a Bishop his robes were likely red, white, and gold.

http://www.stnicholascenter.org/stnic/images/french-postcard-wmaster.jpg
Nicholas of Myra died on December 6, AD 343.

However, the earliest depictions of Santa Claus (mid 1800s) has him dressed in suits of red, blue, green, or purple usually trimmed in white or brown furs.

And in case you are wondering, Santa's red suit does not originate from the early Coca Cola advertising campaigns. Santa's red suit was pretty much commonplace well before then.

[clarebear]

Interesting about the coca cola, i never knew that.

[Jeff Westover]

Coca-Cola had some influence in popularizing the image of the modern Santa, there's no disputing that. But Santa's red outfit is pretty much as SC describes -- it is worn in honor of Bishop Nicholas, noted in history as an attendant of the council of Nicea, and famed through out the world for his legendary exploits.

How did he go from Bishop Nicholas to Saint Nicholas and thus to Santa Claus?

One such story -- and one I admittedly try to keep alive here (http://mymerrychristmas.com/2005/santa.shtml) -- talks of a dark night when Bishop Nicholas put on his red Bishop's robe with the white trim and tucked in his long white beard in order to give an anonymous gift.

The family -- a man with three daughters -- was destitute of means. The custom of the time was that each daughter would need to be provided with a dowry in order to marry. Because they were poor, the father of the three daughters was contemplating selling his children into slavery.

Nicholas heard of their plight and on a dark night soon after the eldest daughter came to marrying age, he tossed a small bag of gold through an open window (and some say he tossed it down the chimney), sparing her a life of misery.

As the second daughter came of age he repeated the deed, again doing so anonymously.

As the third daughter came of age the father waited up nights to catch the gift-giver in order to express his gratitude. His persistence paid off as he caught Bishop Nicholas in the act.

This story is recounted in many lands, although some of the details change from one telling to another. Some say it was not bags of gold but rather balls of gold that Nicholas left. Some say he tossed them into the chimney where they landed in the hanging stockings or the drying shoes of the unmarried girls. That is why some, to remember this event, celebrate Christmas was an orange in the toe of a stocking -- symbolic of the Bishop's gold.

Well, there are literally hundreds of stories like this. Bishop Nicholas was famed because he was bishop in a large city and he cared for many people, who like the man noted before, were not even members of his Church.

More than 2000 churches in the "old" world bear his name and other than Mary, the Mother of Christ, there is no other name more closely associated with Christianity there than the man who later became known as St. Nicholas.

The beloved name of Santa Claus here in the US is really just a butchering of the Dutch pronuncian of Sinter Klass -- Sinter, meaning Saint and Klass, a derivative of the name Nicholas.

[kelly ann]

Thank you all for enlightening me!!!!

[Maureen]

I was going to say because blue wasn't his colour but I guess not!!

[trackrebel]

lmao...Mo...that made my day....:D

I wanted to post a story about St. Nicholas as well...but then I read Jeff and SC´s indepth answers and decided that another one was not intended.

Santa Claus and Nikolaus surely wore red before Coca Cola...but Coca Cola created the total look of Santa as we know it now...but the red coat and everything was there before Coca Cola...because of St. Nickolas ....I remember seeing pictures of the Nikolaus when I was little (in the 80s)...where he´s wearing the bishop robes, too

[George Broderick, Jr.]

why does santa wear the colour red..?

Blue makes his thighs look fat cheesy

[MerryChristmasLydio]

I always thought he wore red so that the pilots driving the airplanes would see him and not run into him. Also, each year, Rudolph has to install a new red light bulb in his nose so the airplane pilots will see the front of the sleigh too. Also all the other reindeer have bright red collars so the pilots can see the rest of the deer and sleigh. :D

[whychristmas]

As other have said, not coke! For more on the coke connection and what came before it, have a read of: http://www.snopes.com/holidays/christmas/santa/cocacola.asp

I've also got books showing ads and cards of a red santa wayyyyy before the coke campaigns!

But did you know that the shape of coke bottles was modelled on the figure of Mrs Claus?!?!?!?!?! ;) (lucky santa!!!)

And I had a couple of 'Mrs Claus Miracle Sausages' for lunch!!! (It's what my local butcher calls their sausages with extra stuffing and cranberries in them - yum)