Free Vintage Santa Graphics

What kid doesn't love Santa Claus? In his purest form he represents hope, fun, joy and the excitement of being showered with gifts. These vintage Santa graphics capture those magical qualities of Santa in quite different ways, depending on the era. Father Christmas, as he used to be called before he became the Santa we know today, represents an old fashioned Christmas. He was usually portrayed as not quite as jolly as more modern versions. In fact, in some old fashioned graphics, Santa looks downright sad and tired. But children loved him just the same.

As the years progressed, Santa got a bit of a face lift. He smiled more and was absolutely beaming by the time the sixties arrived. Not to be cynical, but that's probably because advertisers found that jolly, smiling Santas sell products. But society -- specifically children -- aren't any worse for having Santa graphics become jollier. In a world that's often fraught with tension, a smiling Santa is and always will be welcome.

The vintage Santa graphics below span quite a few decades. It's easy to recognize the older, old fashioned Santas by their darker colors and more serious tone. And the images from the sixties scream retro, especially the one that portrays Santa with the antennas on the rooftop. Children today probably don't even know what antennas are, but when I was growing up, they often had Christmas lights hanging from them during the holiday season. I remember asking my mom if our antenna would get in the way of Santa landing his sleigh.It obviously didn't, because I managed to get many nice Christmas presents over the years.

Choose a small version of any of the vintage Santa graphics above the large image to the right. When you click on one of the images, it will appear larger. If it looks blurry, don't worry. Follow the instructions below to correct that.

IMPORTANT: Once you've chosen an image and see it larger, double-click on the larger image, which will make the best version of the art appear. Sorry for the extra step, but this will give you the highest quality art.

Then, if you have a PC, just right-click and save the final version of the artwork to your hard drive.

Note to Internet Explorer users: You may have to click one more time after following the instructions above. (In other words, click on the image that comes up after clicking on the large image.) For some reason IE makes those images look a little shaky. But clicking that final time will bring you to the good stuff. Sorry about this! When the instructions are followed using Firefox, which is the browser I use, the images look great.