Description

Slip Sledding Away by P. Buckley Moss

Introduction

Slip Sledding Away by P. Buckley Moss is a lively 2021 Christmas scene that sends Kris Kringle racing down a snowy hillside with another bundled holiday figure close behind. Evergreen trees frame the slope, a warm log cabin waits in the distance, and two deer stand near the edge of the winter landscape.

Moss combines icy aqua and dusty blue with vivid ruby red, allowing the sledding figures to leap visually from the snow. The result is a Christmas image centered not on preparation for the holiday, but on the sheer pleasure of getting outside and playing in winter.

Story Behind the Artwork

There is a wonderful sense of motion in Slip Sledding Away. The sledders descend diagonally across the hillside while the surrounding trees, cabin, and deer remain still. That contrast makes the figures appear to rush through an otherwise peaceful mountain setting.

Kris Kringle is especially playful here. Instead of delivering presents or standing ceremonially beside a Christmas tree, he becomes part of the winter fun.

The distant cabin and deer broaden the story beyond the sledders themselves. They give Moss’s Christmas scene the feeling of a secluded winter retreat—a place where holiday celebration and the natural world meet.

No documented artist statement has been supplied explaining Moss’s specific inspiration or intention for the work.

Symbols & Meaning

Sledding is closely associated with childhood, winter recreation, and shared seasonal memories. By placing Kris Kringle on the hill, the composition brings that familiar sense of play directly into Moss’s Christmas imagery.

The evergreen trees reinforce the winter setting and have longstanding associations with endurance because they retain their foliage through winter. The cabin introduces warmth and shelter, while the deer add a quieter connection to wildlife beyond the activity on the hill.

These meanings are based on visible imagery and established cultural associations rather than a documented statement of Moss’s intent.

Artistic Details

The composition depends heavily on diagonal movement. The hillside sweeps downward across the picture, creating the sensation that the sledders could continue right out of the frame.

Moss balances that motion with strong vertical evergreens, especially the large tree dominating the left foreground. Its green branches create both depth and a visual frame through which we enter the scene.

Color is equally important. The current Canada Goose Gallery record identifies aqua, ash gray, black, dove gray, dusty blue, moss green, pearl white, ruby red, rust, and tan. Against the cool blues and whites of the snow, the red clothing immediately directs attention toward the sledders.

The deer at far right are small but significant details. Their warm coloring echoes the cabin and provides another point of interest after the eye follows the sledders downhill.

Featured Master Collections

Primary Master Collection: Christmas Traditions

Slip Sledding Away is an excellent fit for Christmas Traditions, whose approved subjects include snow, Santa, winter settings, children, and holiday celebrations. The gallery’s collection framework specifically includes Kris Kringle, Kringle Bells, Kringle’s Pal, and other works that allow this print to become part of a larger Kris Kringle browsing experience.

Supporting Master Collection: Animals & Companions

The deer provide a secondary connection to Animals & Companions, particularly useful for visitors who enjoy discovering wildlife throughout Moss’s work. The approved collection encompasses wildlife, farm animals, pets, working animals, and country life.

Decorating Ideas

The combination of ruby red, evergreen, aqua, and snowy white makes Slip Sledding Away particularly easy to incorporate into Christmas decorating. It can add color to an entry, family room, kitchen, den, hallway, cabin, or seasonal gallery wall.

Its horizontal 7 13/16 × 12-inch image also makes it well suited to a grouping of Moss Christmas prints. Pairing it with other Kris Kringle scenes could create a particularly entertaining holiday display in which Santa appears in several different adventures.

Gift Ideas

Slip Sledding Away is an appealing Christmas gift for a Moss collector, skier or sledding enthusiast, cabin owner, winter lover, or family with cherished memories of snow days and sledding hills.

It is also particularly well suited to someone collecting Moss’s Kris Kringle artwork, since the gallery inventory contains several other works that follow this playful Christmas character through different activities.

About the Edition

Slip Sledding Away was issued in 2021 as a limited, numbered giclée on paper.

Numbered edition: 250
Artist’s proofs: 25, Certificate of Authenticity Included
Image size: 7 13/16 × 12 inches
Orientation: Horizontal
Condition: New, mint condition

The current Canada Goose Gallery record confirms the year, giclée medium, numbered edition of 250, image dimensions, horizontal orientation, and Barns, Christmas, Kris Kringle, and Winter subjects. It currently lists the print at $80.

🎨 Fun Fact:

Recreational sledding has a much longer history than today’s molded plastic sleds might suggest. A 1907 American trade catalog preserved by the Smithsonian advertised several specialized children’s sleds, including the famous Flexible Flyer, designed so riders could steer by applying pressure to a crossbar without significantly reducing speed. Another model, the Clipper, combined hardwood construction with steel runners and hand grips. The catalog offers a fascinating reminder that racing down a snowy hill was already established winter fun for American children more than a century ago.

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🖼️ Collector’s Insight:

What distinguishes Slip Sledding Away is the amount of narrative Moss fits into a relatively small winter landscape. The diagonal hill creates immediate motion, Kris Kringle supplies humor and Christmas identity, the cabin establishes a destination or retreat, and the deer quietly extend the scene into the surrounding natural world. Moss also uses the brilliant red figures as moving focal points against a predominantly aqua-and-white landscape. For collectors of her Christmas work, it offers a particularly playful interpretation of Kris Kringle—less a formal symbol of Christmas than an enthusiastic participant in the pleasures of winter.

Continue Exploring

If Kris Kringle’s adventure is what makes this print appealing, continue with Moss’s other Kringle subjects.

• Kris Kringle provides an earlier 1994 Christmas interpretation
• Kringle Bells
• Kris Kringle’s Snowman
• Kris Kringle’s Angel
• Kringle Dance
• Kringle’s Air Noel
• Kringle’s Pal
• Kringle’s Swing

Expanding the character into a remarkably varied Christmas group. Canada Goose Gallery’s approved inventory verifies these works and identifies several specifically under Christmas and Kris Kringle.

Suggested Categories & Subjects:

• P. Buckley Moss Fine Art Prints
• Christmas
• Kris Kringle
• Winter
• Sledding
• Deer

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“Even Kris Kringle deserves a snow day.”