Where to Get 14 of The Best Vintage Style Santa Mugs

In this post: Christmas brings with it such memories and nostalgia. Have Santa join in on the fun by grabbing one of these 14 vintage style Santa mugs!

Any one of these vintage style Santa mugs would make a great gift idea, or pre-holiday purchase. They’re perfect for shipping eggnog (if you like that), or hot cocoa by the fire with a good book. Or for that extra strong cup of coffee on Christmas morning when you’re up before the sun with the excited kiddos!

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A Quick History of the Vintage Style Santa Mug

Don’t worry, I’m not going to bore you with a long history lesson! But I’m always a little curious about where a trend starts and why it becomes popular. At the very least, I love to know where it starts.

From what I can gather online (here and here specifically), a company called Holt Howard created the original Santa mugs. Known for its Mid Century whimsical, cartoon-like ceramic ware, Holt Howard was formed in New York in 1949 by brothers John and Robert Howard and A. Grant Holt. They started out to produce a line of Christmas ceramics. The ceramics featured cute, cartoon-like Santas on atomic shaped mugs, pitchers, jars and other vessels. These mugs were so popular that they started creating coffee mugs for everyday use. They are now credited with pioneering the coffee mug as we know it today!

Crazy, right?

Apparently, the original founders left the business in the 1970’s and the business closed in 1990.

But we still have all the vintage and vintage-inspired Santa mugs!

Where to Find Actual Vintage Santa Mugs

I personally don’t own any true vintage Santa mugs, but from doing a quick Google search, I think you can find real ones on ebay and at some collector shops and vintage shops. They may be few and far between at this time of year, given that it’s Christmas and the desire for them is higher at this time of year. But, at other times of year, you may be able to find them more readily available.

In the meantime, I do know where you can find some great vintage style Santa mugs online right now to add to (or start) your collection!