Man Playing Santa by Norman Rockwell

December 9, 1916 Issue of The Saturday Evening Post

Man Playing Santa, the Norman Rockwell painting published December 9, 1916, was Rockwell's first Christmas illustration for the cover of the Saturday Evening Post.

This was Rockwell's sixth Post cover out of 322 total cover illustrations. Rockwell's career with the Post spanned 47 years, from his first cover illustration, Boy With Baby Carriage in 1916 to his last, Portrait of John F. Kennedy, in 1963.

This was also his first Post cover with a Christmas theme, specifically Santa Claus.

The current location of the original painting is not known.

This painting also appears in three Rockwell commentary books. It appears as illustration 327 of Norman Rockwell's America by Christopher Finch, as illustration 92 of Norman Rockwell: Artist and Illustrator by Thomas Buechner and on page 75 of Norman Rockwell, A Definitive Catalogue by Laurie Norton Moffatt.

Surely, this painting reminded the children to be on their best behavior for at least three more weeks. Being nice instead of naughty for three weeks was possible for most children. Christmas was almost there!

Man Playing Santa

Man Playing Santa represents a more complete painting than a lot of other early Norman Rockwell Post covers. Instead of painting characters silhouetted on a white background, Rockwell was able to feature a partial background in this illustration.

Hence, we are treated to delightful pictures of toys on the shelves in the background and the foreground.

Rockwell painted a veritable cornucopia of toys in the painting.

Toys, Toys, Toys!

Look closely for these toys:

• Rabbit
• Masks
• Buckets
• Baseball
• Dolls
• Car
• Duck
• Miniature doll basket
• Monkey
• Snowman
• Chick
• Miniature Santa
• Pole Climber

The characters in this illustration are the older man and the shopkeeper. The story Rockwell is telling with this painting is children at Christmas.

The older gentleman dresses up as Santa Claus for his grandchildren or other children he may be fond of. The toys, though adults love to play with toys (c'mon, admit it) are all children's toys.

This painting is actually the first of two parts. The second part appeared on the cover of the December 1916 American Boy entitled Merry Christmas, Grandpa. You can seen which toy Grandpa bought. Hint: it's not on the list, because I'm not sure what to call it.

This painting reminds us who the secular Christmas celebration actually is for: the children.

May you and your children have a Merry Christmas.

Norman Rockwell's Man Playing Santa (1916)

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