Old Santa Claus pictures are… well, you’ll see.

Chesterfield, Pall Mall, and Murad are all name brands of cigarettes that prominently used Santa Claus as a marketing helper from the 1910s to the 1950s. Some of the weirdest and most messed up ads that you will ever see are these ones that use the good ol’ beloved Santa Claus as a smoking mascot. Not only does Old Saint Nick smoke in these ads, but many of them have him sporting a really creepy looking face at the same time.

Let’s go ahead and see some of these odder advertisements from the early 1900s.

1915 - Murad

There certainly is a great deal to unpack in the first image, as Santa is holding a large box of Turkish cigarettes made by the name brand Murad. Murad is the most prominent fixture in this article of using Santa Claus for their own dark reasons as they actually produced most of these types of images that we were able to find in the archives. We start right out of the gate with this one, as Santa’s face is contorted and visually off putting in a way that makes you slightly wonder his intentions. Maybe he is up to something a little bit more than just trying to peddle cigarettes to what clearly amounts to adolescents, given the nature of the character himself and the history within.

It makes you wonder how this was even a thing that was possible at any point in time. While, in hindsight, we can see the major fault in this advertisement campaign; it surely was lost entirely on those that carried it out all those years ago. The sentence “Without them what would Christmas be?” can be found in bold yellow on the front of this ad. This makes it clear to you, the viewer, that Santa is saluting you in order to show you how much you need these cigarettes and not to say hello during this blessed time of year full of joy and cheer. Basically, he just wants you to spend money on his sick sticks and smoke up children. Yikes, the early 1900s were weird.

1940 - Pall Mall

This advertisement is another really creepy depiction of Santa as he sits back and blows his bellows of cigarette smoke from his lungs in ease. The most messed up thing about this ad is that it makes the distinction of being milder and guarding against throat scratch. This ad is clearly attempting to use the imagery of Santa Claus coupled with these words of affirmation in anti-throat scratching capabilities in order to appeal to a larger audience base. Maybe this audience is meant to include kids, which is a clear correlation that is easily made from any ads that use Santa in order to get their message across to the masses. Old Saint Nick says to enjoy smooth smoking as he exhales his own smoke. The kids must have seen these ads in the magazines and thought smoking was cool enough for one of their heroes Santa so it must have been safe enough and cool enough for them. That is severely messed up.

December 3rd, 1915 - LIFE, the Humor Magazine

We were actually able to find more than just a date of publishing for this one. This ad was actually used in LIFE Magazine. In a similar fashion to the other ads in this article, Santa is shown smoking a cigarette in order to show that it is what the viewer should want to do as well. The face that he is making is another patented creepy Murad brand face, and it certainly begs the question of why they thought this looked good in the first place. Aside from using this character to smoke in ads, you would think they could see how weird the face he was actually making was. Apparently not, however, as they not only released this ad but several others as well.

1944 – Chesterfield

I want you!… to buy my sick sticks!

This one is a more realistic image of Santa Claus instead of the usual, more cartoony, look to the character on these ads. There really doesn’t seem to be much difference in this one other than the fact that it is more realistic, however. The only real “out of the norm” in this advertisement is the fact that there is so many words in the bubble found towards the bottom of the ad. This bubble shows Santa saying that Chesterfield cigarettes are a staple during Christmas times because it is the best for real enjoyment. You can understand the need for a business to try and drive sales up but using Santa in this way with this message just blatantly cries “we belong to the devil”. Evil is stuff like this.

December 6th, 1919 – LESLIE’S WEEKLY

This ad is traced back to the publication name LESLIE’S WEEKLY. A wide eyed (not in a good innocent way) Santa is shown with yet another cigarette in his mouth. While this cigarette is burning smoke into the air from the lips of old saint Nick himself, we are given words to read next to the Murad box itself. It is Santa saying that he asked adults what they wanted for Christmas, and that they all answered Murad cigarettes. It seems odd that he would need to specify that he is talking to adults… or about adults… it really just seems like another way to market to children that not only does Santa like these cigarettes, but the grown ups do too. This is really messed up.

December 7th, 1918 – LESLIE’S WEEKLY

Murad is back for another one, and this one is possibly the gutsiest move of them all. Saint Nick is wearing an army uniform and brandishing a rifle. Not to mention he looks like a garden gnome, or the fact that he is holding a giant box of cigarettes and placing them into his famous bag of presents; he is also dressed to the gills in full military garb. Just why on Earth would anyone think that putting Santa Claus himself in soldiers’ attire would be a great idea and help them in any way?

This comes from the publication LESLIE’S WEEKLY again, and we can clearly see a pattern here. Yes, they are saying that they want to put cigarettes in every soldier’s pocket, but they are also using a children’s icon to do it. It’s really weird.

Recap & Summary:

So, you saw some messed up and weird pictures of Santa Claus. You’re welcome for that. From Saint Nick smoking, to holding a gun and wearing army green; we saw a lot of really strange stuff in this article. Hopefully Santa Claus isn’t ruined for you now, and you can still find it in your to believe in the spirit and magic of Christmas. If you smoke, that is surely up to you, but maybe big companies shouldn’t use kids iconic characters that they idolize as a sales representative to those cigerettes. Hey, early 1900s, you guys missed the mark on this one. Maybe we can learn from these mistakes and avoid stuff like this in the future. Probably not though.

Thank you for taking the time out of your day to read this article! : )