TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — Which cities around the world could be considered the capitals of Christmas?
New York City with it's tree at Rockefeller Center?
One of Germany's famous Christmas markets?
Or is it somewhere in Alaska close to the actual North Pole?
We're making an argument for Tucson, Arizona... Yes, the Old Pueblo puts our state on the map as a holiday hot spot.
The minute you step foot inside the Westward Look Resort, you are stepping back in time. We're talking more than a century of history in the Desert Southwest and you can see it when you look around. Santa, well, it's not unusual this time of year. But here at this resort, you'll see him here, there, around the corner, everywhere.
"So you guys have a little connection with Santa Claus here,huh?" I asked General Manager Wyatt Fee.
"We do. Yeah, yeah, just a little bit. Back in the 30s, Coca-Cola commissioned the Sundblom family to come up with a new image"
You've got to believe it was the dry Sonoran Desert that inspired the artist Haddon Sundblom to drink a lot of Coca-Cola and create this massive campaign for Christmas.
"Guests are always coming in and always ask questions about it," Wyatt said.
"Now, is that him?"
"That is him."
"As Santa... so he takes these photographs to say, ok ,let me help and use the image. Oh,that's great."
"Prior to this image, Santa from a European standpoint was a skinny,kind of evil looking guy...and so these are the the Nason family - the two daughters, even though they were painted as a daughter and a son," Wyatt showed me.
Drawing after drawing, painting after painting, sunny produced so many images that are iconic, and when you think about it, it's more like mid-century Americana, something that has stayed with the Coca-Cola company.
"When you look at this, you say, oh, there's Santa."
"Yes, it's perfect. It's the image we all know," Wyatt said.
Something for Claire, April, and for me on the 'nice list' for sure.
"It just paints such a different picture in your mind of, ok, where did this come from?"
"Yes, this one right here, originally from 1953.That was the original posing of it," Wyatt said.
Picture this kind of outpost on the south side of the Catalina Mountains,a beautiful view of the dry desert air inspiring this artist create what Coca-Cola would make into their massive campaign for Christmas.
Wyatt showed me the actual space where Sundblom sketched and painted in the upper rooms.
"This was kind of perched atop the house. So you had a really good vantage point... And so these are from the original [adobe walls] ... Oh man, more than a century.That's crazy.That's crazy."
What what a piece of history this is to preserve.
"Now,do you have guests come in for this, or do most people come in and go,what's with the Christmas," I asked.
"It's mainly what's with this. It sparks the interest.It gets the conversation going ... just another fun little story we have about the place," Wyatt said.
When you consider all of the celebrities that stayed here on this resort property over the years and decades, one of them really stands above the rest.
If anything, this forces you to rethink your inspiration of where did Santa Claus come from?
Not so much the North Pole, but Pima Canyon, Pusch Ridge and the palo verdes around really bringing about that image of old Saint Nick.
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Dan Spindle co-anchors Good Morning Tucson on KGUN 9 and is an award-winning storyteller whose work has earned him honors from the Rocky Mountain Southwest Emmys, the Associated Press and the Utah Society of Professional Journalists for both anchoring and reporting. Dan is passionate about history and loves to explore the Grand Canyon State. Share your story ideas with Dan by emailing dan.spindle@kgun9.com or by connecting on Instagram, or X.
