Despite the inaccurate statements made by Coca-Cola for a number of years (you have since changed their history) and doesn't look the way Santa create some confusion from other quarters, American Illustrator Haddon Sundblom, as we know it.
This story is a bit less than straightforward and includes a number of other illustrators including Thomas Nast, j. c. Leyendecker, Reginald birch, Norman Rockwell and others (see my post on Illustrator visions of Santa Claus).
However, Sunblom refined one the great illustrators of the 20th century, the image of the character in its most famous form, early. Sundblom's series of Santa illustrations for Coca-Cola show, which ran from 1931 until 1964, gave us the quintessential modern interpretation of the Jolly.
The Coca-Cola page has a selection of some of the pictures and the Coca-Cola art blog has another page here, both with links to larger versions. An even better resource is the post on golden age comic book stories, with many Sunblom Santas in one place (again, click for larger images). There is also a post on KoiKoiKoi.
Leif Peng has an excellent post on sunny's Santa on his blog today's inspiration and has a wealth of other posts on Haddon Sundblom. (Note: some of you include Sundblom's pin-up illustrations which can be mild NSFW.)
See also my previous posts about Haddon Sundbom and Haddon Sundblom's father Christmas illustrations.
I would coal to a piece in my Christmas stocking, however, if it was painted by Haddon Sundblom.
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