Christmas At Home By Grandma Moses

Christmas At Home is a painting by American folk artist Grandma Moses completed in 1946.  Grandma Moses was closely associated with Christmas, in part because for many years Hallmark issued a best-selling line of Moses Christmas cards and in part because that holiday mirrored many of Moses’ own favorite traditions. 

Like all her work, Moses’ Christmas paintings drew directly from her own experiences. In her autobiography she recalled, “Christmas morning… I scrambled out of bed… Oh! how good things smelled. The living room and parlor were all decorated with evergreens around the doors and windows; everywhere was hemlock, mother’s favorite evergreen. And the smell of hemlock and varnish has always been a favorite of mine ever since.

Then breakfast was ready, and while we were eating Lester spied a little China dog on the clock shelf. And it was marked William Lester Robertson, so it was his. Then commenced the hunt for more toys. We found a small shepherd dog on the reservoir, marked Horace Greely Robertson. But so far nothing for me. Then I found another little short-legged dog marked Arthur M. Robertson.

Now as you know I felt pretty bad. And mother said it was too bad, as I had been a good girl, and for me to keep looking, which I did. When the men came in for dinner, the hired man said he saw a lady looking out of the window at him behind the evergreens. And sure enough, there was Little Red Riding Hood, for Anna Mary Robertson.”

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