Norman Rockwell's Main Street Pop-Up Advent Calendar

24 perforated windows 24'' x 12'' when open

Interior illustration for McCall's, December 1967. Norman Rockwell Museum Permanent Collection, © Norman Rockwell Family Agency.

Norman Rockwell's painting Home for Christmas (Stockbridge Main Street at Christmas) has come to symbolize Christmas in New England, just as Rockwell intended in 1967. Rockwell wanted the editors at McCall's to identify the scene as Stockbridge in the text - and they did. 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."

In addition to photographs taken of the buildings on Main Street, Rockwell drew on a variety of references to create his snowy winter scene. For sky and mountains, he used photos of snow-draped mountains in the Berkshire Hills, Vermont, and Switzerland. For the warm interior glows, he studied magazine images of candlelit country homes. For clothing styles, especially women's coats, he relied on illustrations in a Sears & Roebuck catalogue.