Santa Claus on His Horse
Santa Claus takes off at a gallop on his trusty horse Jingles as he gets ready to deliver presents to your house.
Yes, Santa uses his sleigh pulled by the reindeer to deliver presents on Christmas Eve. But as the big day approaches, he rides around the North Pole on Jingles to help Santa get in flying shape. It is just a small part of his training regimen, but Santa definitely enjoys the ride.
Almost Here
As of this writing, Christmas is just a week away. If you have been waiting to do your Christmas shopping, you might not want to put that off any longer. Christmas will be here before you know it.
Stores and commercials and catalogs mailed to your house and social media ads and everything else want you to buy lots of gifts this year, just like every year. It is not the perfect Christmas unless you give your loved one the perfect gift, so they say. And it definitely is fun to give gifts, and to receive them, too.
But even better than that, I love the family time. I like when the hectic decorating and shopping times give way to the time of slowing down and actually enjoying the holiday. Christmas morning is a special time in our house, and it always goes by way too quickly. I try to enjoy it for as long as I can, but it is never long enough. But that just makes me look forward to the next Christmas all the more.
And if you are still shopping, spend more time planning the special time with family than you do searching for just the right gift. Because the Christmas memories will last longer than any gift will last, and the memories will be more valuable, too.
For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. - Isaiah 9:6
About the Artwork
I like to have some Santa Claus art each year, and this one had been in my head for a while. I was starting to think that I might not have time to get to it, but as you can see, I did indeed find the time. I did consult with Laura, our in-house horse expert, to make sure the horse looked right, and she made a few notes of things to change to get to what you see here.
I also tried something different from what I typically do: color outlines. Most of the time, I outline everything in black (as in this art, for example), except for those times when I do not use outlines (as in this piece). So I thought I would try something different, similar to the look of many of the Disney hand-drawn animated movies (before they switched to computer generated stuff), because they used color outlines as well. I think black outlines are still my main style, but it was interesting, and a little challenging, to try to do something different for a change.
