Allegory of an American Christmas was painted while Dalí and Gala were on the first of what was to become many visits to the US. The country had long intrigued Dalí and on this first trip he was greatly impressed with it, especially with the media, who afforded him the attention that he needed and craved. Dalí loved the idea of a "new country" and the opportunities he saw there; these feelings are reflected in the painting. Dalí used the image of an egg-shaped stone often during the Thirties. As a form that represents a human head, it can be seen in Illumined Pleasures. In the Allegory of an American Christmas, as with the later painting The Metamorphosis of Narcissus, the egg produces the idea of a hatching, or a birth of something new; of a change taking place. Here, the huge stone egg fills the painting, hovering ominously over the flat, blue land. The dark clouds on the horizon heighten the atmosphere of expectancy. A distorted golden plane is breaking free from a hole in the e
