Top 20 Christmas Magazine Covers of All Time

The recent New Yorker Christmas cover, featuring a brilliant Barry Blitt illustration of President Obama bowing deeply to Santa Claus, reminds us of how much we like the long tradition of magazines making bold holiday statements on their covers for the December issue. We went to our local newsstand looking for more of these covers and found… very little. What was once considered essential for any magazine worth its ink and paper has now obviously been banished by an aggressive War on Christmas Magazine Covers by the Forces of Evil. Once upon a time the December newsstand was filled with angels, Christmas trees and Santas of all shapes and sizes. And this wasn’t just Christian iconography; these were covers that were funny, creative, surprising, provocative, that made political statements, and most of all, that engaged their readers in a visual dialogue. Now, with the notable exception of the New Yorker, the only attempt at Christmas creativity comes on the occasional women’s service magazine, with sad little plates of cookies or fruitcakes. We’re going to get all George Lois here and say that what was once an opportunity for brilliant magazine-making has now become just another set of bland, focus-grouped, by-the-numbers covers, put together by folks who are scared stiff of offending or provoking anyone. Esquire, Fortune, Playboy, Vanity Fair, New York: it’s time to put the X back into those December covers! End the War on Christmas Magazine Covers. Who knows, magazines might even increase those newsstand sell-through numbers that are all doing so terribly if they just get back into the holiday spirit. We’ve collected the Top 20 Christmas Magazine Covers of All Time. In the interests of non-sectarianism, we avoided covers that were mere reproductions of classic Christmas religious art. We stuck with Santa Claus, Christmas trees and gifts, and we found a lot of great ones. Who could deny that our world would be a much better place with a return to this fun and soulful style of magazine covers? Esquire, 1963: The classic George Lois-designed December 1963 Esquire cover, featuring world heavyweight champion Sonny Liston. GQ, 1974: GQ, back in 1974, when it was known as Gentlemen’s Quarterly, featuring Barbara Streisand. The New Yorker, 2005: We’ve got to give many props to The New Yorker, for maintaining a high quality of holiday covers. This one, by illustrator Anita Kunz in 2005 captured the middle-of-the-Iraq War malaise perfectly. Jet, 1968: Jet magazine has a long history of putting celebrities in Santa outfits on their covers. Bill Cosby, Marvin Gaye, Sherman Hemsley (twice!) have all graced the cover, but none was better than the Godfather of Soul, James Brown, celebrating Black Christmas in the Ghetto in 1968. Baltimore City Paper, 1999: Back in 1999, Shepard Fairey was still a scrappy street artist and poster-maker. He did this cover for alternative weekly newspaper Baltimore City Paper, who ran it just like this, without headlines or even a cover logo. National Lampoon, 1970: This December 1970 cover of the National Lampoon is a classic, with fighter planes from an unidentified Asian Communist country (North Vietnam? North Korea?) shooting down poor Santa as they yell “Eat death, bloated lackey of the capitalist toy mongers!” Fortune, 1938: For many years after its launch in 1930, Fortune ran beautiful, elegant, illustrated holiday covers. We could have filled a whole list of 20 with their brilliant selections, but this one, from 1938, by Antonio Petrucelli, struck us as singularly memorable. >>>NEXT: Andy Warhol gets his 15 minutes, and more. Ms., 1975: Ms. was a flat-out great magazine in the mid-70s. It was funny, provocative, powerful, and brilliantly art directed. Bella Abzug was a flamboyant, hard-driving progressive congresswoman from New York City, who was a perfect cover gal for all things liberal and feminist (and good!). New York, 1970: Speaking of brilliant 70s magazines, this December 1970 cover of New York is one of the scariest covers we’ve seen. The illustration is by Milton Glaser, who was also the magazine’s art director. Vogue, 1940: This is the British edition cover of Vogue, from December 1940, but we think it ran as the cover in the US as well. Nothing captures the Xmas spirit like expensive jewelry. Playboy, 1972: Playboy is another magazine with a long, rich history of holiday covers. Half of our writing team was interested in studying their many holiday issues in depth, for the articles, of course. We liked this one, from 1972, because it layered in the homage to those classic Coca Cola Santa advertisements. Interview, 1972: Andy Warhol’s Interview, December 1972. We’ll go for Andy in a Santa hat holding a Polaroid camera any day.The woman being photographed by Andy Warhol on the cover of Interview is model Naomi Sims, often referred to as the first African American supermodel. U.S. News & World Report, 1951: Remember when the newsweeklies used to pause at the end of every year and print a graceful holiday cover? That tradition stopped in the 50s, but this one from U.S. News & World Report creates a moving image in the midst of the Korean War. The New Yorker, 2008: Another brilliant New Yorker holiday cover, from December 2008, maybe the most original one on our list. The artwork is by Bob Staake. >>>NEXT: Get in that Christmas spirit - it's Madonna and Snoop Dogg. Esquire, 1974: This December 1974 Esquire cover features Rudolph (Nureyev) and Rudolph (Reindeer). The cover was a gatefold, and opened up to reveal that Rudolph (the Red-Nosed) was also floating in the air. Popular Electronics, 1958: This one’s for the children. There is a long-tradition of science and science fiction magazines printing holiday covers. We have stacks of covers in our files of Santa giving presents to aliens. But this Popular Electronics cover from 1958 struck as a particularly brilliant, especially the little baby robot handing a present to its mommy. TV Guide, late '60s: In the 50s and 60s, TV Guide was known for its striking illustrated covers, utilizing a New Yorker-like collection of brilliant artists. This one, from the late 60s, features the work of British artist Ronald Searle. Rolling Stone, 2006: Nothing says Christmas like Snoop Dogg smoking a blunt candy cane on the cover of Rolling Stone, from 2006. We love it! Esquire, 1992: Another brilliant Esquire cover, this one from 1992. If you’re going to have religious iconography, why not have Madonna? Vanity Fair, 1935: From the start of illustrated magazine covers, Santa imagery played a critical role at holiday time. This cover, from the December 1935 Vanity Fair, illustrated by Paulo Garretto, is typical of the fun and whimsy that could go into magazine cover making during that period. For a full collection of illustrated period magazine covers, we recommend the book Covering Christmas: Vintage American Magazine Covers, which was the source for several of the covers in our Top 20 list. >>>NEXT: Bonus - the all-time worst Christmas cover. THE WORST XMAS COVER: As we looked through 90 years of holiday covers, we found a lot of clunkers, but this cover from the December 1968 Playboy stood head and shoulders above the crowd as the absolute worst cover of all time. It’s just so wrong on every level. For a look at another 20 classic holiday covers, visit the Robert Newman Design Facebook page, at www.facebook.com/robertnewmandesign. Robert Newman is a print and online media consultant. His website is www.robertnewman.com. Linda Rubes is an associate art director at Fortune. Special thanks to the following sites for cover reference: Full Table (Fortune), Robert Winters (National Lampoon), Cover Browser (Jet), Modern Mechanix (Popular Electronics), WFMU FM (TV Guide), Ms. cover copyright Ms. magazine, 1975.

Top 20 Christmas Magazine Covers of All Time

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Top 20 Christmas Magazine Covers of All Time

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