THOMAS NAST, A CARTOONIST WITH HARPERS WEEKLY WAS FIRST TO DEPICT SANTA CLAUS

HE IS ALSO REMEMBERED FOR HIS UNFLATTERING IMAGES OF THE IRISH IN AMERICA

The January 1863 issue of Harpers Weekly Newspaper has an interesting front page in that it is the first modern depiction of Santa Claus. Prior to this time the story of the generous St. Nicholas was a popular one at Christmas time but other influences from the many different immigrant populations newly arrived in America brought additional touches to the story of Christmas and in particular of a jolly man delivering gifts.

It was a German born cartoonist, Thomas Nast, working for Harpers Weekly in New York who first created the image of the plump and jolly man on a sleigh with his reindeers. This particular image, created during the US Civil War, depicts Santa Claus handing out gifts to Union Soldiers in camp at Christmas while wearing a suit adorned with the stars and stripes of the United States of America. Interestingly the picture also shows Santa entertaining the troops with a small puppet dangling from its neck as if being hung. This was a reference to the perceived traitors of the Southern states and in particular Confederate President Jefferson Davis. Another equally striking image from this Harpers Weekly edition depicts a worried wife on her knees praying on Christmas Eve for the safe return of her husband from the Civil War battlefield. Interestingly if you look towards the top of this picture you can again see the image of Santa Claus with his reindeers about to descend the chimney as the children sleep soundly.

While Thomas Nast is sometimes referred to as the “Father Of The American Cartoon” he would not be so popular among the Irish immigrant population living in New York at that time. Nast consistently created images of the Irish depicting them as a destructive group of people, not to be trusted, who endangered American society. Furthermore, his images were designed to make the Irish look inferior and lacking in any intelligence. While Anglo-Saxons are drawn as regular looking people, the Irish are intentionally drawn as inferior sub-human like characters. His images added to the anti-Irish sentiment very prevalent during this period of US history.

So while we do acknowledge his contribution to the modern story of Santa Claus, and Christmas, Thomas Nast is not exactly someone we will be raising a toast to during this holiday season.

It is with huge thanks to our own Danny Leavy that we have access to these images. Danny has a large collection of Harper Weekly original newspapers and has went to great lengths to protect and ensure they are conserved correctly. The images depicted are amazing in their detail and equally give us a fascinating insight as to what were the people’s perceptions of events then occurring. What it is now distant history is vividly brought back to life.

Happy Christmas to All

Kevin Guing & Danny Leavy

24th December 2025

** Thanks to Danny Leavy for all images in this article. It is our hope that we can share more images from his Harper Weekly collection over the next year**