Letters From Father Christmas (original 1976; edition 2004)

A collection of beautifully illustrated letters to the children in the Tolkien family about the adventures of Father Christmas with the Polar Bear at the North Pole each Christmas. Enchanting tales with wonderful characters - the Polar Bear's scrapes are always entertaining. It's also particularly poignant during the war when Father Christmas has little to deliver (stolen by opportunistic goblins) and has difficulty finding all the evacuees and children made homeless by bombings. Lovely little book for Christmas.

This book is available in a Kindle edition which reproduces all the full colour illustrations and handwritten letters. As such, I expect it would be a bit of a disappointment on the current generation black-and-white Kindles, but it looks beautiful in the Kindle apps for computers/tablets (I fear smart phones would require too much zooming and scrolling around to be practical). Just FYI, readers of ebooks! ( )

Beginning in 1920, when his oldest son, John, was three years old, and continuing through 1942, by which time Michael, Christopher and Priscilla had joined the Tolkien family, J.R.R. Tolkien - author of such fantasy classics as The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings - wrote and illustrated a yearly missive from Father Christmas, mailed to his children through the post, or magically smuggled into their house, sometime Christmas Eve night. Beginning with the 1925 letter, this collection - edited by Tolkien's daughter-in-law Baillie - reproduces the text of those letters, and the artwork that accompanied them. There is also a selection, notably including the first letter, from 1920, of facsimile reproductions of "Father Christmas's" own hand-written sheets.**

What lucky children those Tolkiens were! Imagine receiving such entertaining little stories every year, complete with darling illustrations, and creative little details, like the hand-crafted "arctic" stamps and postage marks. What great care Tolkien obviously took with these letters, and what a delightful result! From the well-meaning but bumbling North Polar Bear, whose accidents were always endangering Father Christmas' scheduled gift delivery, to the long-suffering Father Christmas himself, patient and amused (mostly) at the foibles of his companion and assistant, everything about these stories appealed to me. Like so many other readers, I was struck by themes here - particularly as it relates to the ever-present threat of Goblins - that reminded me of Tolkien's greater works of epic fantasy. Definitely one that children with a fondness for Santa tales will want to read (I think I may dig out my copy of L. Frank Baum's The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus, and contrast and compare), as will Tolkien fans interested in the evolution of his storytelling.

**The edition I read, sadly, left off with the 1939 letter, although I understand that later reprints contain all of them, including those from 1920-24 and 1940-42. ( )

There are very few Christmas themed books that I'm likely to enjoy -- they all seem so gimmicky -- and only one album of Christmas music that I will consent to listen to (Thea Gilmore's Strange Communion). But this one is lovely, probably because it wasn't really meant to be a commercial thing: Tolkien wrote these letters and illustrated them for his own children. This volume is a nice little edition, not just copying the text but including images of them as well.

It's barely a mouthful, of course, and it's not the most astonishing and original thing Tolkien ever did -- but it has little glimpses of his humour and skill. ( )

Reading this as an adult, what comes across most strongly is Tolkien's love and affection for his children (which is, of course, what one would expect of all parents for their children, but which sadly is not always so) and his delight in writing and drawing these little Christmas stories each year.

Due to the very young age of his eldest son when the first letter was written in 1920, these early missives are very short, but in 1925 we get a longer message which introduces us to the North Polar Bear, who will feature every year thereafter, and a beautiful little painting of the NPB wrecking the North Pole itself, smashing Father Christmas's house, and a picture of the new house that he builds to replace it.

The Letters were never intended for publication and it's a testament to Tolkien's remarkable skill at storytelling that simply collecting them together makes such a delightful book. The Letters do continue themes from one year to the next and the characters are likeable, funny and have their own personalities.

The last couple of letters, addressed just to his youngest child, Priscilla, by this time, are quite poignant. It seems that she has been too busy to write to Father Christmas, but he has a good idea, anyway, of what she would like in her stocking (books, of course). In 1943, Father Christmas supposes that Priscilla will be hanging up her stocking just once more, and there was to me a feeling that, perhaps, she would not have missed Father Christmas's letters had they stopped a little earlier. Sometimes it's hard for parents to accept that their children have grown up. Nevertheless, Father Christmas assures Priscilla that he will never forget her, nor her brothers, and that when they have children of their own he may write again.

A magical story to read with younger children, although I suspect that they might be wanting some letter from Father Christmas themselves afterwards, so be warned! ( )

Starting in 1920, the Tolkien children received letters from Father Christmas, complete with pictures and funny stories about the North Polar Bear and others in Father Christmas' household. This book collects the letters from 1925 to 1938 and the "final letter" (no date given, but it's sometime during World War 2). Most of them are transcribed, but there are images of two of the letters showing Father Christmas' shaky handwriting, and much of the artwork is also reproduced.

This is a really cute collection I enjoyed paging through. I could have read it in one sitting, but I spread it out a bit over two days. The illustrations and stories of Father Christmas and the hapless Polar Bear are often funny. While I probably wouldn't read it from beginning to end for myself, it would make a fun family read-aloud around Christmastime. ( )