Christmas is Coming!

Well, I know I’m a bit early but I also know crafters are already gearing up for the Christmas season. Whether making items to sell or to give to friends and families, Christmas crafting combines the traditions of yesterday with the modern crafting techniques and tools of today.

And, after Denver residents saw snowfalls of several feet this past week, I thought these cool looking Santa Claus drawings might be just the thing to get those creative juices flowing. These free, vintage Santa Claus book illustrations would make a great addition to web projects and crafts for this Christmas.

Shown here in the thumbnail size, Santa smokes his pipe in a haze of blue and purple smoke.

The full-sized image is 350px by 309px and can be found on Reusable Art in the Santa Claus Drawings section and this particular drawing can be found listed under Cool Santa Drawing.

This second Santa Claus illustration is from the same book and features the same cool Santa puffing on his pipe with a large sack of toys. The original image is 550px by 355px and can also be found in the Santa Claus Drawings section of Reusable Art listed under Santa in America.

It’s a little hard to see in the smaller version, but Santa’s sack along with a variety of toys and Christmas decorations also has a small American flag making this perfect for web projects and crafts related to Christmas in America.

Jessie Wilcox Smith (1863 – 1935) is the talented artist who drew both of these Santa Claus images which appeared in a 1912 edition of Twas the Night Before Christmas. Smith came to become an illustrator by taking a very different path than many of her contemporaries. Not a child prodigy or member of a family of other gifted artists, Smith came to discover her talents around the age of 20. While studying to become a kindergarten teacher she discovered her drawing abilities. With a change of schools and the new focus on becoming a professional artist, Smith would begin the path to a career that spanned many decades and made her one of the most loved illustrators of her time.