Vintage Illustrations from Twas’ the Night Before Christmas

And so it begins! It’s annual Christmas crafting time, and I can’t wait to start my series of antique holiday posts. This is FreeVintageillustration.com’s FIRST holiday season, so stay tuned for 1800’s German Christmas postcards, real Victorian holiday greetings, and more vintage Christmas book illustrations like the ones below. And speaking of, there are so many wonderful vintage Christmas illustrations from antique children’s books.

As one of the industry’s premiere illustrators, Jessie Willcox Smith illustrated an impressive number of Children’s books in the early 1900’s, like ‘Mother Goose’s Nursery Rhymes’, ‘A Child’s Garden of Versus’, ‘A Way to Wonderland’, and her popular ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas!’ I went through her version of Twas’ and selected my favorites which you can also use in your own Christmas projects.

Fun Facts about Jessie Willcox Smith!

Jessie Willcox smith was one of the most in-demand book illustrators of her time. Learn more about this amazing talent in the facts below.

  • Smith was born in 1863 and is considered an important figure from the “Golden Age” of American book and commercial illustration.
  • She Illustrated for Good Housekeeping and Ladies’ Home Journal for years
  • Illustrated the popular Mother Goose series from Good Housekeeping
  • Created all of Good Housekeeping Magazine’s covers from 1915 to 1933!
  • Smith illustrated more than 60 books
  • Enrolled in the Philidelphia School of Design for Women and Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art in 1885
  • Made one of the first advertisements for Ivory Soap

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