I am just off now for Oxford with my bundle of toys–some for you. I heard you ask today what I was like & where I lived. On this page, Father Christmas writes to 3 year old John in 1920:

So I will let the work speak for itself, posting a few examples of the artwork and some transcripts. I am thrilled to own this book and wish I had: a) thought of it myself, being a lover of Christmastide creativity and advent antics and b) the skill to do it. The children received these letters each year with delight and wonder, finding themselves lost in the myth as long as they could. They include beautiful art, hand-drawn stamps, the hilarious antics of a polar bear, and personal notes in Father Christmas’ shaky handwriting. These letters were carefully delivered to the Tolkien family mantel during advent. Tolkien wrote letters from Father Christmas each year. The story of this book is itself a great story.įrom his first child’s toddlerhood to the end of his last child’s Christmas innocence, long before he became the author of The Hobbit or The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. If there is one more gift you would like to get for someone you love–for an older child with a great sense of humour, or any Tolkien fan–there are multiple editions available of this out-of-print special edition in used bookstores online. Published by his daughter-in-law in 1976 on the 3rd anniversary of Tolkien’s death, this is a stunning collection of art and humorous writing. Tolkien’s The Father Christmas Letters and she was good enough to give it to me. What a find! At a yard sale a good friend scored a copy of J.R.R. Deepest wishes on this holiday season, and may all your polar bears bring joy and light! I have since found another copy of The Father Christmas Letters, which our son will receive as a gift when he has his own little ones to entertain–whether at firesides or in classrooms or in library book clubs. I have come to love Tolkien’s peculiar artistic eye, which is captured especially well in the gorgeous and rich Mythopoeic Award-nominated Bodleian exhibition book, Tolkien: Maker of Middle-earth, edited by Catherine McIlwaine.

I cannot think of a better Christmas note for you, dear readers of A Pilgrim in Narnia, than to touch this up a bit and send it back out. Tolkien’s funny and endearing Father Christmas Letters has had quite a spin around the internet this week.

Letters from father christmas book