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eloel- t1_j1rxo80 wrote

Green is because life, plants and especially holly has been a staple of winter festival throughout history. Red because Coca-Cola is very very good at marketing, and ran a campaign where Santa wore red. Now, christmas is half-red.

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AngryBlitzcrankMain t1_j1ry3wq wrote

Use of red predates Coca-Cola by like 10 centuries. Coca-Cola popularized the exact image of Santa that exist right now, but they didnt come up with it, they just picked one that was good for their brand. Same with using red as a symbol of Christmas.

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eloel- t1_j1ryfua wrote

Yes, all colours make an appearance of some sort in some holiday tradition. Appearance of widespread red is Coca-Cola's doing.

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AngryBlitzcrankMain t1_j1rytoq wrote

As a someone from a European country, when red has been part of Christmas imagery before Pemberton´s grandparents were even born, no. Both red, green and gold are all related to christian imagery. It has nothing to do with Coca-Cola.

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Tato7069 t1_j1s3cpo wrote

Classic reddit answer... Incorrect, just to give the eye roll/wink to fellow redditors with hate boners for corporations

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eloel- t1_j1s4gz3 wrote

Well, it's the npr answer. Do you have a better cited answer?

https://www.npr.org/2016/12/20/506215632/how-red-and-green-became-the-colors-of-christmas

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bimbles_ap t1_j1s6vg2 wrote

Coca-Cola is attributed to the red/white Santa suit, not red and green being the defacto Christmas colours. That article says that too.

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RichardGHP t1_j1sbogy wrote

Coca-Cola didn't even invent the red and white Santa suit. It dates back to at least the early 20th century.

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sregor0280 t1_j1sh6rz wrote

All they did was help solidify it as "the Santa look" I was born in 80 and raised by my grandparents who were born in the early 30s. They had some old Christmas decorations with a blue Santa and a green Santa.

Coke ran with the red Santa because it matched their company colors (red woth white trim, and red with white letters) and they made it the more popular color pattern for Santa, but in no way created it.

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bimbles_ap t1_j1sgqri wrote

Santa was depicted in all sorts of colours, so while Coke may not have been the first, because of their marketing reach they're the reason why the red/white suit became Santa's suit globally.

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Between3-2o t1_j1ry1ji wrote

Yeah, to my knowledge, Coca Cola designed Santa’s suit and whole look in general.

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