In a wide, flat procession moving left to right, Santa sits in a curved black sleigh with thin gold trim, a gift sack and presents with red ribbon bows tucked in behind him. Three slender cream-white reindeer in profile walk in an evenly spaced row, with black hooves, dark branching antlers and red collars studded with small gold bells, joined to his hands by thin harness lines and reins.

Everything stands on a single ground line of cream snow across the bottom sixth, while the open olive-green sky above holds one eight-pointed gold star at upper right. The calm, generous emptiness gives the scene a quiet, rustic stillness.

Painted in thick oil in a naive American folk-art manner, the surface shows broad directional palette-knife strokes in the sky and snow, stacked dabs in the reindeer and Santa's coat, and fine linework for harness and antlers. Darker, grainy edges and faint craquelure-like specks give it an aged, matte look.