Snow, warm yellow light coming out of cosy buildings, villages coming together, decorated trees, love, bell towers, churches, white people… The illustrations below are largely from 20th century illustration and convey the Christian American hygge of December.
Georg von Rosen (Swedish painter, 1843-1923) Julmarknaden, 1872Main Street At Christmas by Peter Helck for the Dec 1944 edition of Country GentlemanA Christmas Card By Jenny NystromLadies Home Journal Magazine cover art from December 1928Cover of the December 1931 issue of The American Girl magazine. For all girls, published by the Girl ScoutsNeedlecraft The Home Arts Magazine, December 1934COUNTRY GENTLEMAN Dec 1940Pauli Ebner (1873 – 1949, Austrian) Christmas StreetWoman’s Home Companion December 1924Our Jolly Holidays Put-together Book story by M. Helena Crofts pictures by Helen E. Ohrenschall 1928COUNTRY GENTLEMAN Dec 1947 cover art by Francis Chase ‘Christmas 1947’Josef Lada, Czech illustratorOn my way to Midnight Mass by Paul Caron (La Belle Province) 1900Clarence Gagnon (Canadian 1881-1942) Midnight Mass 1933Stepan Kolesnikov (1879-1955) ChristmasIt always is Christmas Eve, in a ghost story – Jerome K. Jerome, 1891Edna Eicke cover illustration, 1957Henry Hintermeister Christmas StockingsIlonka Karasz 1953 New Yorker coverWoman’s World Magazine December 1915 filling the Christmas stockingCountry Gentleman 12-1945, Merry Christmas F Hook. A young girl clutches The Night Before Christmas1937 DEC COUNTRY GENTLEMAN MAGAZINE cover artCOUNTRY GENTLEMAN Dec 1952COUNTRY GENTLEMAN Dec 1938 ERLE STANLEY GARDNERCOUNTRY GENTLEMAN Dec 1945 cover art by Henry Soulen ‘Christmas CarollersCOUNTRY GENTLEMAN Magazine DECEMBER 1928The Night Before Christmas by Denslow, 1903BLUE BOOK (Pulp Magazine) Christmas December 1949Lizzie Lawson ‘The Christmas Fairy’ 1885Arthur Getz for a 1963 issue of The New YorkerArthur Getz for a 1965 issue of The New YorkerDecember 1959 Argosy Magazine coverRalph Barton (1891-1931) 1930Butterfly Land a picture book by Sibylle v. Olfers, text adapted from German by Helen Dean Fish 1931Betsy McCall visits Grandmother for Christmas. Published in the December 1960 issue of McCall’s magazineNorman Rockwell (1894-1978) Christmas tree decorating on a ladderAngus Clifford Racey Helps (1913–1970) cheese for SantaTwas the Night Before Christmas Sarah Noble Ives, Sugar Plum Fairy
