Two of my favorite authors have contributed to the mystique of Father Christmas. The first is C.S. Lewis who, in “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” has Father Christmas present gifts to the children adventuring in Narnia - weapons to help them deal with armies of the white witch (I remember being puzzled as a child as to why Father Christmas was passing our weapons, but have long since accepted it). The other author is, of course (considering the title of this post): J.R.R. Tolkien, best known for The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. His contribution to the Christmas canon of fantasy is the posthumously published Letters from Father Christmas (the edition I own is out-of-print, but there’s a newer paperback edition here).

I didn’t discover this volume of letters from Tolkien (under the pen name of Father Christmas) to his children until a few years ago. I was absolutely delighted by his take on the Father Christmas tradition. Tolkien’s version includes reindeer, but also an enormous, bumbling, writing “Polar Bear of the North” (sort of Father Christmas’ assistant) which makes commentary on Father Christmas’ messages to the children and his adventures with him. Mischievious, toy-smashing goblins plague the north, and Father Christmas and the Polar Bear must deal with them to save Christmas.

Tolkien, illustrated many of the letters and wrote Father Christmas’ words in a wobbly script (to disguise his own handwriting). The illustrations are fun and fanciful.  The polar bear even sends goblin runes for the children to translate.

All in all, this is a wonderful book, and, in part, was an inspiration for starting this site.