2-steve-henderson.pixels.com

For a holiday that emphasizes peace and joy, there’s a lot of controversy about Christmas. But one of the oddest, and increasingly frequent, complaints about the holiday is that it starts too early and lasts too long.

I get it – you walk into a box store in August and the Christmas trees are up. So strong is the commerce element of the holiday that it’s easy to forget it’s about something other than cheap electronics and plastic toys.

Magazines, blogs, and newspapers join in with their annual, requisite articles on surviving the holidays, focusing on all these parties we’re theoretically attending, populated by sophisticated people in formal attire. It’s stressful just reading the articles, and I never attend parties like this.

But Christmas doesn’t have to be this way, and for that reason, I painted These Gifts Are Better Than Toys, focusing on a likable looking Santa who is intently painting a Nativity set. For me, it blends the happy holiday fantasy of Father Christmas (whom some religious people, in their fervor, want to totally obliterate) with what many people acknowledge as the reason for the season (I know, the phrase is overused).

In this context, Christmas can’t start too early or last too long, because Christmas IS a time of peace and joy. The spirit of Christmas — the gift giving, the times together with family and friends, the joy of creating — can’t start too early, or last too long.

More info: 2-steve-henderson.pixels.com

These Gifts Are Better Than Toys