Every year for the last 10 years, I’ve posted a ‘countdown’ of vintage Christmas advertising, classic toys, or antique post cards on my personal Facebook feed. A few years ago, I started sharing them here – as a Christmas card of sorts to readers.

This year’s Christmas countdown focused on 25 classic magazines featuring the ‘golden age’ of cover illustration. It was a fun countdown to put together and I learned a lot about magazine cover illustrators, many of which have been forgotten by the public in the age of photography.

M E R R Y C H R I S T M A S !

🌲 25 Days to Christmas: This cute couple surprised each other in December 1950 …

🎅🏻 24 Days to Christmas: Santa’s late for work in this 1937 cover for the New Yorker …

❄️ 23 Days to Christmas: These sweet children look like they stepped out of the Hummel Studios (December 1935) …

❄️ 22 Days to Christmas: It’s a silent night, snowy night on this peaceful 1925 cover from Better Homes & Gardens …

📸 21 Days to Christmas: I especially love holiday ‘slice of life’ illustrations like this Saturday Evening Post cover from 1954 by Amos Sewell …

🌲 20 Days to Christmas: This vibrant 1925 ‘Jazz Age’ cover celebrates the aristocratic good life in the ‘Roaring 1920s’ …

🎅🏻 19 Days to Christmas: For St. Nicholas Day, what better to feature than this Norman Rockwell masterpiece of Old St Nick himself? Illustrated exactly 80 years ago this month …

📺 18 Days to Christmas: I’m not sure if TV Guide is still around, but each Christmas they would take a week off of TV cover stories and feature a wonderful holiday illustration …

🎼 17 Days to Christmas: Not everyone in this church choir is excited by the adorable young couple singing in holiday harmony (1955) …

❄️ 16 Days to Christmas: It’s a ‘Winter Wonderland’ in this peaceful 1926 cover …

🎅🏻 15 Days to Christmas: Three adorable kids seem shattered in this wonderful 1948 cover. It predates the song ‘I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus’ by 4 years …

🎅🏻😆 14 Days to Christmas: Oops … Santa’s busted kissing someone other than Mommy underneath the Christmas tree in this 1931 Peter Arno illustration for New Yorker …

🌲 13 Days to Christmas: Students paint the glass windows in their classroom for Christmas in this 1951 cover by John Falter …

🌲 12 Days to Christmas: This elegant Art Deco cover features fashionable styles from 1931. The Delineator was published by Ebenezer Butterick, namesake of the tissue-paper sewing pattern empire.

❄️ 11 Days to Christmas: It’s pure ‘Dashing Through The Snow’ in this idyllic 1941 cover of Woman’s Day. Love the illustration and 2-cent price tag!

🎼 10 Days to Christmas: ‘Choir Boys Will Be Boys’ is the humorous title of this 1938 Post cover by Frances Tipton Hunter. You never have to teach kids how to misbehave, do you?

⭐️ 9 Days to Christmas: This bright little house is a beacon of Christmas spirit in the big city. The cover was drawn by cartoonist Charles Addams – more known for his spooky family than holiday cheer.

⭐️ 9 Days to Christmas: There’s nothing more earnest this Boy Scout and his Mother on this 1925 cover of Boy’s Life …

❄️ 8 Days to Christmas: For this very cold morning, I thought I’d share this serene & snowy 1914 cover from House Beautiful by Lee Willenborg.

⭐️ 6 Days to Christmas: Gorgeous color and style in this 1934 Post cover ‘O Holy Night” by JC Leyendecker …

⭐️ 5 Days to Christmas: WWII wasn’t over in December 1944, but the two puppies on the cover of Women’s Home Companion looked hopefully toward more peaceful times …

⭐️ 4 Days to Christmas: Simple and elegant Christmas cover from December 1966 …

⭐️ 3 Days to Christmas: This intimate December 1929 cover celebrates the simplicity of the season. Illustrator Jessie Wilcox, painted over 300 covers in her career, including 17 straight Christmas covers for GH.

🎅🏻 2 Days to Christmas: The title of this Dick Sargent illustrated 1951 Post cover says it all … ‘The Truth About Santa’ …

⭐️ Christmas Eve: I’m not sure a mainstream magazine would publish such a deeply religious cover at Christmastime today, but it wasn’t a problem in 1927. (Cover by JC Leyendecker)