The iconic “Christmas colors,” the ones everyone can immediately ties back to the holidays and jolly old Santa, green and red are everywhere this time of year.

Were those always our Christmas colors?

“I have no clue,” said senior Alejandro Esperante.

The answer is no. Red and green were not the only colors used to decorate for Christmas as it actually took a while for them to become the staple colors seen everywhere today.

Up until 1931, Santa was often dressed in robes of blue, green, or red. And Christmas cards used a variety of different colors including blue, white, red, and green.

“I never really thought about how much Santa evolved over the generations,” noted senior Daniela Quito.

The commonly imitated jolly fat Santa of today wasn’t the public’s typical depiction of him back in the day. Instead he was often thin and elf-like, and drawn in robes of different shades.

It wasn’t until Coca-Cola hired a man by the name of Haddon Sunblom that the Santa everyone knows and loves came to be.  Instead of drawing the typical Santa of the time, he drew one very similar to the Santa Claus everyone recognizes today—fat and jolly and wearing red robes. Up until this point, artistic renditions were never consistent. Sunblom’s illustration solidified for ever the image of Santa that persists until today.

The ads featuring this new Santa were such a hit that the particular shades of green and red used came to signify Christmas.

“I never new our Santa came from a Coca-Cola ad,” said junior Olivia Oguz.

Religiously, red is often associated with the blood of Christ, and as Christmas represents the birth of Jesus, that color is representative. Moreover, green symbolizes the evergreen tree which is emblematic of eternal life since it maintains that color for its entire life. The combination of red and green further underscore the divinity of Jesus Christ’s ultimate sacrifice for humankind.

Now you know the rest of the story.