A truly timeless book with all the heart and life that the season can bring, and one I hope to share for years to come.When I read to my two sons, I find myself marveling at the way they respond to good books. I hope to see myself as the parents, one day, vicariously reliving those simple pleasures, relaxing by the fire. I see myself in the kids fidgeting in church and laughing amidst a sea of wrapping paper on Christmas morning. Unlike almost any book I’ve ever read (can you count sequential art as “reading”) “Christmas!” transports me back so easily, it’s almost like watching a home movie. He gets away with really simplistic designs that you can tell he belts out in no time flat, but the dedication to filling the page with as many people and objects as possible is truly mesmerizing. And I can’t overstate how dense Spier’s art is. Like looking through a yellowed family album, each vignette tells a story and perfectly captures the magic of the holidays.

Like an “I SPY” or “Where’s Waldo”, Peter Spier’s books are a treasure trove of little details. You really feel like you get to know the family depicted in “Christmas!”, their dynamics, their traditions, and their joy. His art is so charming and nostalgic and excels at communicating a ton of information in a single drawing. While he clearly had a fondness for America, he also illustrated books based in London and Amsterdam as well as a series of Biblical stories.

Spier’s subject matter was almost always scenes of domestic life, often celebrating simple hometown pleasures and Americana. Not only are Spier’s books immediately recognizable for his iconic style, but for their immense layers of detail and for often not incorporating any narration or dialogue. The entire family emigrated to America in 1950, but Peter didn’t focus on children’s books until the later half of his life. His father, Jo Spier was a famous Dutch cartoonist and Peter’s loose line art and watercolor style is reminiscent of European and Scandinavian folk art. Born in Amsterdam, he spent his youth with his family in the Netherlands. Spier was a prolific children’s book illustrator, with over thirty books between ’61 and ’95. Today I’m gonna highlight one of my favorite artists from my childhood, Peter Spier. Most of them are silly little picture books from when my sister and I were in Elementary School or the brown scraps of paper left from my parents old Christmas books! One’s even my own self-published book, “Kosmo’s Christmas Delivery” which you can find on Amazon 😉 But the ones that stand the test of time are truly works of art and can be enjoyed by all ages.

While not as flashy or exciting as the ornament box or the Christmas movie bin, the tub of Christmas books is like opening a time capsule of Christmases past.

Peter spier's christmas