December 2025 Header Image: “Santa Claus in Camp”

This month’s header image comes to us courtesy of Thomas Nast, whose illustration for Harper’s Weekly depicts a visit from Santa Claus to a Union army camp. Published as the cover on January 3, 1863, Nast’s Santa gives out much-needed supplies like new socks (and copies of Harper’s Weekly), as well as a dancing puppet of Jefferson Davis. This Christmas illustration is the first of 33 that Nast would create for the magazine over 23 years.

To learn more about the illustration, check out the Massachusetts Historical Society‘s website entry.