+++++ What Thomas Kinkade said about this work +++++ "No other holiday is more joyful than Christmas. Family and friends come together to celebrate the season, reflect on Christmas, relish in merriment, and lavish love and gifts on each other. Every Christmas is memorable and filled with so many diverse traditions. Whether your Christmas memories are replete with the unbridled excitement and anticipation of kids on Christmas morning, the beautiful Christmas Eve services, carolers at your door, or the famed Christmas tree hunt, ultimately Christmas is celebrated in the home surrounded by friends and loved ones?and that is the central message of my new painting. Behind the beautiful Christmas gate adorned with a holiday wreath and two luminaries gently cascading light across the snow-dusted ground, is a home preparing for the joy of Christmas. Every visitor to this year's festivities will pass through this gate as its presence reminds them to leave the busyness of life behind and focus on the joy awaiting them inside. In a very real sense, this gate is a local herald beckoning passers to focus on the message of the season. I trust that this gate will speak to you as profoundly as it does to me. Behind its strong gate is a home where memories are in the making and where love abounds." ~~Thomas Kinkade