Thomas Nast immortalized Santa Claus with an illustration for the January 3, 1863 issue of Harper's Weekly The first Santa Claus appeared as a small part of a large illustration titled "A Christmas Furlough" in which Nast set aside his regular news and political coverage to do a Santa Claus drawing. This Santa was a man dressed up handing out gifts to Union soldiers. Copyright note:  the creator of this work died in 1902.
<bdi><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/en:Thomas_Nast" class="extiw" title="w:en:Thomas Nast"><span title="American cartoonist (1840–1902)">Thomas Nast</span></a>
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