What Do the Donkey, the Elephant and Santa Have in Common?

All were visualized by a man who immigrated to America in 1846 as a six-year-old boy from Bavaria. Thomas Nast became a political cartoonist for Harper's Weekly and is remembered as the founding father of political cartooning. He also greatly influenced how America saw itself and his view survives to this day. In 1863, Nast designed the Santa we know to this day—the chubby “happy little elf” --in contrast to the Saint Nicholas who was popular at the time. He created the cartoon as a way