Norman Rockwell was one of America's most beloved artists and illustrators. He illustrated covers for The Saturday Evening Post for 47 years. The public loved his often humorous depictions of American life.

Rockwell's popular depiction of what for many is the quintessential small New England town, is immortalized in his painting, with all the longing for a simpler time that it represents. Rockwell began painting the popular image, Home for Christmas (Stockbridge Main Street at Christmas) in 1956, but did not complete it until December 1967.

Norman Rockwell’s painting Home for Christmas has come to symbolize Christmas in America, just as Rockwell intended in 1967. Rockwell wanted the editors at McCall’s to identify it as Stockbridge in the text—and they did. Norman Rockwell takes you on a Christmas Eve walk along Stockbridge’s main street—past the public library, the antiques and gift shops, the insurance office, the supermarket behind its Greek-revival facade: past the barbershop, the old town office, the new town bank and down the rambling Victorian hotel, beyond which is Rockwell’s own studio. McCall’s reached out to its national audience by adding, “Wherever you happen to hail from—city, suburb, farm or ranch—we hope you will have, for a moment, the feeling of coming home for Christmas.”

Established in 1773 as a stagecoach stop, the Red lion Inn has always been the social hub of town. Rockwell’s South Street home and studio appear at the far right border. In a window above the market, a Christmas tree glows in a room that was Rockwell’s studio from 1953 to 1957. The Old Corner House, which became the home of the first Norman Rockwell Museum two years after the painting was completed, stands at the left border of the painting.

Credit: The Norman Rockwell Museum