[buffaloguy]

Iirc, the fat Santa was a creation of Coca Cola. Most earlier depictions show him with normal weight.

[reed13k]

No the first real written description for Santa were from “Twas the night before Christmas” originally titled “A visit from St. Nicholas”. In it we get the lines:

He had a broad face and a little round belly,
That shook, when he laughed like a bowlful of jelly.

He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf,

[katana]

Way before Coca Cola (or perhaps when they were still using real cocaine in their formula) there was the famed nineteenth century cartoonist Thomas Nast.

[Little Pig]

I wonder if Dickens’ description of the Ghost of Christmas Present influenced the idea of the “fat Santa”?