Haddon Hubbard "Sunny" Sundblom (June 22, 1899 – March 10, 1976) was an American artist of Swedish and Finnish descent and best known for the images of Santa Claus he created for The Coca-Cola Company. Sundblom's friend Lou Prentice was the original model for the illustrator's Santa. Background. Sundblom was born in Muskegon, Michigan, to a Swedish-speaking family. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haddon_Sundblom