From gleaming presents to inebriating parties, discover five artists’ interpretations of the festive season

Christmas stamps, as featured on this year’s COUNTRY LIFE Advent calendar cover, are a cherished annual event– but how did they become one? Emma Hughes investigates

Alexander Marshal–this country’s first major botanical painter–deserves to be better known, writes Tiffany Daneff, after seeing his luminous originals in the Royal Collection

John Constable painted Salisbury Cathedral and Leadenhall from ...

They say a pic is worth a thousand words. What does yours say about your special moment? Here one reader shares the story behind her favourite photo

There is something pleasant in the thought that joviality will reign to-morrow in such grim homes as London workhouses,” a reporter for the West Londoner wrote on Christmas Eve 1870. “There will be an