I knew in a moment it must be St. Nick.

The artist responsible for creating the image of the one who is known far and wide as Santa Claus, was an American born to Swedish immigrant parents.  

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  Known in some circles as "the greatest advertising illustrator of them all," Swedish-American Haddon “Sunny” Sundblom (1899-1976) poses with one of his Coca-Cola ads.

• I knew in a moment it must be St. Nick.
  The whole world recognizes him as St. Nick, too. And the artist responsible for creating the image of the one who is known far and wide as Santa Claus, was an American born to Swedish immigrant parents. Known in some circles as "the greatest advertising illustrator of them all," Haddon “Sunny” Sundblom (1899-1976), was born in Muskegon, Michigan to a Swedish-speaking family. His father, Karl Wilhelm Sundblom, came from the Swedish-speaking part of Åland, Finland, and his mother Karin Andersson was from Sweden. Best known for his images of Santa Claus created for the Coca-Cola Company, Sundblom was a legend in the advertising and creative industry during the golden age of posters and billboards in America in the 1920s through the 1940s. His legacy is most strongly tied to his creation of the "Coca-Cola Santa" in a long-running series of holiday advertisements beginning in 1931. According to the Coca-Cola Company, Sundblom turned to the Santa described in Clement Clark Moore's 1822 poem "A Visit From St. Nicholas" (known as "'Twas the Night Before Christmas") — creating a Santa who was dimpled and friendly, pleasantly plump and human. Over the next 33 years he painted more than 40 original works of jolly ol’ Saint Nicholas that evolved into the image of the ages.