Reindeer

One of Searle's long running 'characters' was the reindeer which he used to great comic effect on multiple occasions. A relative of Searle's similarly pathetic horse motif, the reindeer says everything about the human condition.

 Young Elizabethan magazine, January 1959

 Neiman Marcus Christmas catalog

 This later cover was used as the basis for this promotional snow globe.

...and here's a version of the image sans reindeer

Holiday magazine

Christmas card design 1992

This piece is in the art collection of the British Parliament 'The ancient and rather touching ceremony of proceeding towards Christmas' 2009

More Christmas ephemera here

Smörgåsbord

The 1964 book 'Escape from the Amazon!' collects drawings from the 'By Rocking Chair Across . . . ' series that was published in Punch and Holiday magazines. The book contains articles written by Alex Atkinson on Spain, Sweden and France plus a story on 'The Adventures of Mrs. Dyson'. Here are the drawings from the Sweden section. I've traced some of the originals and the rest are scans from the book.

NY Times Book Review

'Attempted Bloggery' found an incomplete drawing by Searle with a Santa sketch. (The recipient was his U.S. rep. Eileen McMahon).  In his archive I remember seeing a collection of xeroxed pages Ronald had made of this drawing and others for the NY Times Book Review (7th September 1997). Ronald was known to art directors and art editors as a professional who would not only dispatch artwork on time but they would often be happily surprised to receive a whole batch of ideas on the same theme for them to pick from. This seems to be the case here where Ronald has offered a variety of Santa gags, perhaps for a 'Books for Christmas' feature? I can't find any reference to this artwork on the NY Times archive website. Maybe someone will be able to find a back issue for me?

Searle explored the 'art museum guard' situation several times over his career.

 An Arcimboldo-like Santa comprised of Christmas dinner!

 Santa delivers a giant bottle of ink on his nib-antlered reindeer!

More Christmas Searle here