There are a boy and a girl are whispering secrets under the Christmas tree in the painting,, just like us, just like our children, but many, many years ago... I was inspired by New Year’s photographs from the early 20th century. Typically, in these family photos, people look very serious; they seem to believe that if they smile even a little, they will ruin the picture. They have to keep all that anticipation of the holiday inside... And here they are, sitting together by the tree, with the year 1904 approaching on the calendar. They await it as something new and unexplored, while we look at this same image, but for us, it feels like a distant past... many eras and many lives ago.