Keywords: Nast Santa cropped, 1881.png Thomas Nast's most famous drawing Merry Old Santa Claus from the January 1 1881 edition of Harper's Weekly Thomas Nast immortalized Santa Claus' current look with an initial illustration in an 1863 issue of Harper's Weekly as 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 The popularity of that image prompted him to create another illustration in 1881 http //www loc gov/rr/european/imde/germchro html 1881-01-01 Thomas Nast PD-art <gallery> Image MerryOldSanta jpg </gallery> Santa Claus by Thomas Nast Smokers pipes in art 19th-century woodcuts Line art Harper's Magazine 19th-century caricatures Christmas 1881 |