Victorian Christmas IV

This charming and nostalgic version of Christmas past completes one of my favorite Christmas collections: Victorian Christmas. Each painting is set in my boyhood home of Placerville, California, and yet each drama unfolds in the gracious and graceful Victorian era, so the series has become a prolonged, imaginative exercise for me. I’ve delighted in pretending that my childhood took place a century ago, when Charles Dickens and Mark Twain lived.

Victorian Christmas IV, Bringing Home the Christmas Tree represents a gradual return to my personal memories. The grand old Victorian house I’ve pictured still stands in Placerville; today it’s an office building that coincidentally houses my dentist!

In my last painting in this series, I’ve concentrated on family which is, after all, the essence of Christmas. Father has brought his precious daughter with him to help cut the tree, and mother has taught her son a little something about holiday baking.

I suppose Victorian Christmas IV is my salute to the Placerville area, where many Christmas trees are grown and where orchards brim over with delicious apples. Perhaps that’s why I’ve included both a Christmas tree and a tribute to the region’s apples. Notice the hot apple pie in the mother’s hands. One thing is certain…both the Christmas tree and the apple pie will provide much pleasure on a frosty winter evening.