It’s Christmas time again, the season that brings red out of hiding and scattered around our homes—as if adding a punch to our Christmas décor will deliver a festive mood. Have you ever wondered how the color red came to be associated with Christmas? Although no one knows for sure, one thing most agree is it didn’t start with Santa’s clothing as his red suit was solidified by the Coca Cola company in a 1939 advertisement and the color had already been popular in holiday décor. Some believe red came into Christmas through Christ as a reminder of the blood he shed at Calvary. For other Christmas colors and their symbolisms check out this Readers Digest article What are the Christmas Colors and What do They Mean?
The Psychology of Red:
The primary color, red, is the most visible color in the color spectrum. Mentally, it evokes a strong reaction from viewers. As with all colors, it creates positive and negative connotations. It is associated with feelings of love and passion, but also seen as a warning. Look at nature for instance. Many poisonous creatures have red on them: the Black Widow Spider, the Strawberry Poison Dart Frog, and (dreaded in Florida) Fire Ants to name a few. Therefore, the color red has found its way onto stop signs, poison bottles, and the scarlet A worn on the chest of the Puritan character, Hester Prynne, in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel, The Scarlet Letter. See all the warnings?
Yet, this color holds significance in matters of the heart as well. Due to the fact, blood and heart are red the color represents love and passion as well.
Red in Art:
An artist uses red to draw the eye to the most important revelation on their composition or to manipulate an emotion of passion, love, anger, power, or danger. It’s considered the most extreme value one can use in a composition. Today, it’s often seen in its purest form in floral compositions, but also mixed with other colors to add warmth to everything from landscapes to skin tones. In Christian themed art the color is often used as a reminder of Christ’s blood shed on the cross.
Red in the Home:
Red is a color that invigorates the mind, but as with other invigorating colors, in some people it can cause anxiety. Red would not be an ideal choice for the walls of your bedroom as you might feel hot, hungry, and restless. Red stimulates the appetite, and the color raises your metabolism. This makes sense when you see the color in many restaurants. Remember those classic red and white checkered tablecloths?
The Life of Norman Rockwell:
One artist/illustrator who utilized the color red was Norman Rockwell. Norman Rockwell was born on February 3, 1894, in New York, NY. Appreciated for preserving the American culture of everyday life, his paintings and illustrations appeared on the cover of The Saturday Evening Post for nearly fifty years. His beloved Christmastime illustrations bring nostalgia of simpler times to hearts and minds. His illustrations are often seen in printed calendars produced especially for seniors, known to bring joy and remembrance to those suffering from dementia. Rockwell is quoted as saying, “The view of life I communicate in my pictures excludes the sordid and the ugly. I paint life as I would like it to be.”
Rockwell’s success came early in life, when at the age of sixteen he received his first commission and created four Christmas cards. This launched him, in his late teens, to becoming the art director for A Boy’s Life (Boy Scouts publication). At this time, he freelanced illustrations for several publications. In 1916, at the age of 22, he painted a cover for The Saturday Evening Post which would become the first of 321 covers over a span of forty-seven years. He married Irene O’Connor in 1916 but they divorced in 1930.
That same year (1930), he remarried a schoolteacher named Mary Barstow, and they had three sons. It was in the following years Norman Rockwell’s fame grew as an artist. He painted a freedom series inspired by a speech Franklin Roosevelt delivered to Congress. In this celebrated series Rockwell illustrated four freedoms: The freedoms of Speech, Freedom to worship, Freedom from Want, and Freedom from Fear. These works toured the United States during wartime and raised $130 million to support the war effort.
After this huge success, a fire destroyed Rockwell’s studio along with much art and the extensive collection of props and costumes he used for his compositions. Another huge loss occurred in 1959, when his wife and the mother of his children died unexpectedly from a heart attack. In 1961 he married his last wife, Molly Punderson, a retired schoolteacher.
At the end of his life, Norman Rockwell suffered from dementia and fear of his works and studio being discarded after his passing. He created a trust and placed all his work into the custodianship of the Old Corner House Stockbridge Historical Society. This later became known as the Norman Rockwell Museum at Stockbridge.
The Faith of Norman Rockwell:
We get a very limited view about Norman Rockwell’s spiritual life—only what he’s shared about his upbringing with his family members, but I chose this artist for December because of what we can learn as believers from his church experience. Norman Rockwell was raised by devout Episcopalians and was forced to sing in the choir as a boy, which meant three practices a week after school, dress rehearsal on Friday evening, and four performances on Sunday. He mentioned one of his choir directors being harsh by yelling and throwing things at the heads of the boys who sang off-key. At home, his parents strictly observed a Sunday Sabbath, in that they forbid him to read the comics or play with his toys on his day off from school. When his mother, who was a known hypochondriac, felt ill on Sunday, they spent the day singing hymns.
Not surprising, as an adult, Rockwell didn’t seem fond of attending church or speaking about his faith in general, but his granddaughter Abigail insists he had a quiet faith. She pointed out as proof a Buddha figurine and Christian religious symbols in his studio. But what did Norman Rockwell show us in his art? A family praying over a turkey dinner. A grandmother and grandson praying over their lunch at a restaurant, while people stood reverently in the background. Rockwell stated in real life you would find some people staring at them with disgust or anger, but he wanted everyone around them to have respectful expressions.
These observances neglect to prove Rockwell’s own personal faith in Jesus but they point to his yearning for a peaceful, joyful, and hopeful life filled with acceptance and kindness. You see, Rockwell’s illustrations encapsulated the ideal life! So, from his perspective prayer is a part of that ideal, but his own youthful experiences with religion may have crushed his faith in a loving God.
We Should Ask Ourselves:
Although only God knows Rockwell’s heart, but we should examine our own. What do we Christian creatives exhibit in our own lives to others about a loving God? I believe this is the question we must ask ourselves in examining the illustrative work of Norman Rockwell. While his paintings reveal an ideal life, do our lives as abiding believers reveal the blessed abundance that comes from a living, loving, praiseworthy God? Or do we come across as unhappy, disgruntled people trapped in legalistic mindsets?
As we celebrate Christmas and hang those red ornaments and tie the red bows, let’s remember salvation doesn’t come from church attendance or honoring legalistic practices or from anything we do, period; instead, our salvation is the true gift of Christmas given by God’s grace alone through the red blood of Jesus Christ.
The Book on Norman Rockwell:
If you’d like to feel a bit of nostalgia this Christmas, or would like to know more about Norman Rockwell, I recommend his autobiography as told to Tom Rockwell titled Norman Rockwell My Adventures as an Illustrator.
Tammy Carter Adams is the founder of The Hallelujah House and the co-host of The Hallelujah House podcast. She resides in Central Florida with her husband Jay and their four children.
