Feliz Navidad

Each year, Celia adds a new Santa to the collection. For 2026, she painted Feliz Navidad, modeled on a longtime family friend from Texas's Rio Grande Valley. A beaded straw hat, hand-painted ornaments, tin stars, and a guitar tucked among the pine give the portrait its warmth and sense of place.

He wears a beaded straw hat rather than a velvet cap, and the pine behind him is hung with hand-painted folk ornaments: tin stars, a little pottery bird, paper lanterns and two cloth dolls. A guitar leans in at the edge of the frame. It is a Santa who belongs to a particular place, painted with the same attention Celia brings to every face.