Oldest American Toy Santa Discovered

By Minnesotastan in Christmas, Toys on Dec 6, 2009 at 12:54 am

Santa figurineAn archaeological investigation in Akron, Ohio has uncovered the first mass-produced toy Santa Claus in the United States.  The figurine is 2.5 inches tall, dressed in blue, and was recovered amidst thousands of marbles and penny toys from the site of a toy factory that burned to the ground in 1904.

Today the archeological site is Lock 3 Park, but in 1884 is was The American Marble & Toy Manufacturing Company, site of the world’s first mass-produced toys — clay marbles and penny toys.  “Marbles were made using a device [that] allowed one worker to make 800 to 1,000 clay marbles per hour… So significant was the economy of scale, that one penny could buy a handful of marbles or dozens of different penny toys. The Blue Santa was a penny toy…”  Before Dyke opened his company, there were only hand-made toys, beautifully painted, clever in design and so expensive only the world’s wealthiest families could afford a toy… “From that point forward, all children could have a toy,” says Cohill.

The figurine is wearing a blue cloak.

Link.


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  1. Tempscire
    Dec 6th, 2009 at 1:59 am

    I thought that red and white/Coca-Cola-Santa thing was a myth.

  2. Minnesotastan
    Dec 6th, 2009 at 2:11 am

    I don’t think there’s any doubt that Coca-Cola used Santa for promotions or that that Santa wore red and white in those ads. Perhaps the myth is that the Coke Santa was the original

  3. Vegetable
    Dec 6th, 2009 at 2:24 am

    It’s well documented that the modern plump, red-clad, ho-ho-ho Santa image is based on 20th century Coca-Cola advertisements. Santa is based on northern European saints/concepts, but nowhere else does such a Santa exist.

  5. Martin
    Dec 6th, 2009 at 6:46 am

    “The figurine is wearing a blue cloak because the red-and-white “modern” Santa was not created until 1931 for the Coca-Cola company.”

    Thats not correct though. Different santas from other country’s which had the Santa myth have had red santas way before Coca Colas 1930′s Santa.

    It was Haddon Sundblom who made the Coca Cola ads but he based his santa on already existing Santa poems and pictures.

    A Swedish illustrator named Jenny Nyström also made red Santas before Coca Colas ads as can seen here:

    http://www.gamlepostkort.dk/jul46.jpg

    Also, Swedish artist John Bauer also made Santas with red santa hats even though they were based on the the smaller Tomte we had up in the north.

    Thomas Nast also contributed to the look of todays Santa as Haddon Sundblom got a lot of inspiration from him;

    http://woolybugger.files.wordpress.com/2007/12/santa_claus_2.jpg

    But yes, Haddon Sundblom (of Swedish herritage) did help a lot to standardize the modern day Santa Claus.

  6. Joe
    Dec 6th, 2009 at 8:34 am

    I stopped in to point out the falsehood regarding the origins of Santa’s most common modern appearance. I was heartened to see some people already at it. Good work with the Snopes link Kaitsu.

    Everything is in order here. Carry on.

  7. Dr. Pizmo
    Dec 6th, 2009 at 9:38 am

    When will the first rubber Smurf be discovered…

  8. Vegetable
    Dec 6th, 2009 at 4:44 pm

    Dammit, I knew I was an idiot but thought I was right this time.

  9. Gauldar
    Dec 7th, 2009 at 1:54 pm

    @Dr. Pizmo

    If it exists, it might have to be disposed of. A lot of those old synthetic PVC toys leak chemicals. I found this old ET doll, and the skin was cracked and oozing this stuff out of the PVC fragments still on. He looked pretty nasty when I found him.

  10. margot sheehan
    Dec 20th, 2009 at 11:41 am

    J. C. Leyendecker and Norman Rockwell did fat, jolly, red-clad Santas well BEFORE the Coca-Cola advertisements. Red-coated Santas appear on Christmas cards from the 1880s and 90s, and of course Nast’s Santa goes back at least to the 1860s.

    The claim that the modern Santa began with a commercial artist in the 1930s is preposterous on the face of it. Surely the Coca-Cola Santa Claus must have been a stereotype of long standing; otherwise people would have been scratching their heads, wondering: “What in heck is this fat bearded man in red supposed to be?”

  11. Minnesotastan
    Dec 20th, 2009 at 2:56 pm

    The comments above re the red/white Santa costume are correct. I’ve modified the post to eliminate the reference to Coca-Cola.


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