Two figures stand in profile facing each other: a gentle reindeer with large branching antlers and a red knitted scarf at left, head raised, and an old-world Santa Claus in a muted red coat with a pointed hood and white fur trim, leaning toward it to touch its muzzle. A dark evergreen fir rises along the right edge, with a burlap sack of gifts at its base and a light dusting of snow on the ground.

The painting is hazy and softly aged, with edges dissolving into an open, quiet background. Loose brushwork, dry-brush scumbling and scraped patches of paint, with thicker impasto on the snow and white fur, give it the worn feel of an old-world Christmas illustration on canvas.