A delightful little collection of letters written by Santa and his polar bear and sometimes a few Elves across a generation or two to a single family... Tolkein's family, to be precise... evincing love, mischief, and cheery, gay, heartfelt holiday wishes.

The letters are quite delightful and sweet.



But to me, there is another side to this, one my devious mind could not ignore.

At first, I was like... where is Mrs. Christmas? There was always a Mrs. Christmas, wasn't there? But no. Father Christmas lived alone... with a polar bear. A big, burly, surly, hairy bear. They sniped at each other all the time and even after destroying one house, they moved in together in a new one. Much later, a bunch of elves moved in, too, but there was still no Mrs. Claus.

Suddenly, this merry gay Christmas became much, much gayer. ;)

Merry Christmas, ya'll!

And for those of you who don't know me, you should probably know I'm a horrible, terrible, no good scrooge. :)

2024 REVIEW

I'm bumping this one up to four stars after listening to the marvelous audiobook. Derek Jacobi adds magic to everything with his impeccable performances.


ORIGINAL REVIEW - THREE STAR RATING IN 2017

A sweet book, what a charming gift Tolkien gave to his children! A wonderful legacy. I was especially impressed by Tolkien's beautiful handwriting and lively illustrations.

“I hope you will like the little things I have sent you.”

Of course, dear Santa! I loved each and every present you ever brought! You brightened my world; you were invisible, yet your presence at a specific time on a specific night, filled my heart with joy and warmed my soul. May you always live!
Helga

This book is a collection of letters written by the real old Santa from the North Pole between 1920 and 1943.
Cast of characters include Santa, his secretary who’s naturally an elf and an unsurprisingly sleepy Polar bear and two cubs. Goblins (guess whom they represent) also make an appearance. While the rivalry between the elf and the polar bear and their misadventures put smiles on our faces, the letters themselves are tinged with sadness, as they were mostly written during the Second World War.

Koliko je ovo samo lep nacin da se svojoj deci pokloni nesto sto ce imati vrednost tokom citavog njihovog zivota. Toliko maste i ljubavi na jednom mestu prosto mora da vas dirne i da vas natera da se zapitate da li dovoljno toga lepog cinite za svoju decu i da li im posvecujete dovoljno vremena. Ako je Tolkin i pored svoje profesorske karijere mogao da se na ovakav nacin i sa ovoliko maste i originalnosti posveti svojim klincima onda nema izgovora, to moze pa svako. Da li na ovaj ili neki drugi nacin to ostaje na vama da smislite :)

I enjoyed this much more than I expected.
n  n
I have a feeling this will become an annual reading in our house now.

Für mich gehört dieses Buch zur zauberhaftesten Weihnachtslektüre. Obwohl J.R.R. Tolkien über zwanzig Jahre lang zu jedem Weihnachtsfeste an seine Kinder, getarnt als Weihnachtsmann schrieb, fesseln mich seine Abenteuer und die des Polarbären auch als erwachsene Leserin. Welche Mühe und Zeit er investierte, um seine Geschichten zu illustrieren und seine Handschrift alt und krakelig aussehen zu lassen, finde ich rührend. Wer wünscht sich nicht einen solchen einfallsreichen Vater und solche liebenswerte Post???

n  "So, my dears, I hope you will be happy this Christmas and not quarrel, and will have some good games with your Railway all together. Don’t forget old Father Christmas, when you light your tree."n

Merry Christmas! Not many other books carry that amount of pure and unrestricted love in their words. Letters from Father Christmas is a collection of letters that J.R.R. Tolkien wrote to his children over the course of twenty years from when his oldest son John turned three until the youngest member of his family, his daughter Priscilla, was fourteen years old.



The letters themselves are pieces of art - they're feature colourful drawings and lovely writings. Sometimes Father Christmas would address the children in his neat handwriting, other times it would be his helpers like the Polar Bear with his chunky and clumsy words.



The stories that Tolkien tells his children are just as lovely though. Turns out preparing and delivering parcels to all children is exactly as difficult as you'd imagine it to be, especially since things tend to never go quite as smoothly as one wish. The clumsy Polar Bear has a habit of causing more problems then he is solving and the goblins who live at the North Pole, too, are a nuisance that has to be taken care of regularly. Thank God Father Christmas has his elves to help him out!

This book kept making me think how much Tolkien must have loved his children. It's a beautiful little thing to have and I would fully recommend it to anyone who wants to bring the Christmas spirit into their lives.

What a darling little book of letters written from J.R.R. Tolkien (Father Christmas) to his children, John, Michael, Christopher and Pricilla. I found it interesting that a man of so much imagination gave his children such common names.

The illustrations that he drew to accompany the letters are remarkable and I shall now think of Polar Bear as a Christmas staple, the way I think of the Grinch.

What a lovely glimpse into the person Tolkien was! These are very personal interactions with his children and say quite a lot about his relationship with them.

Here’s to Christmas, imagination and fathers.

(A special thank you to my friend, Angela M., for putting this one on my radar).

Oh, what a charming book! I was skeptical about getting this, since I’m not even a Tolkien fan. That genre is just not my cup of tea. I’m so glad that I got this. What a beautiful book to get me in the mood for Christmas! While reading this, I was amazed at all the love and dedication that Tolkien put into these letters from Father Christmas to his children for years and years! The illustrations are incredible. The only thing that I would have loved to see were the letters from his children to Father Christmas. This book is delightful for children and adults.

PRECIOSO.

The Tolkien kids were indeed lucky children! Father Christmas wrote them once a year at Christmas time. The letters began in 1920 and spanned twenty years, covering all of his four children's childhoods. Tolkien was an affectionate father. Several letters ended with "A big kiss."

The letters were imaginative and fun, telling tales of Father Christmas' life in the North Pole. They were full of travails with elves, reindeer, goblins and his trouble-prone friend, Polar Bear. Polar Bear was always getting into mischief, which must have delighted Tolkien's children. I know, because he delighted me!

Tolkien illustrated his letters with his own art work. They were a treat to see.

This is a book to read at a relaxed pace. It is coffee table sized. I recommend dipping into it and reading a little at a time.

The days are getting shorter, and I frequently don't leave work until after dark (then work more from home). When I walk to and from work – and I feel lucky to be able to do so – I tense my shoulders against the cold. And, of course, the politics have darkened my state of mind.

In such times, warm books are necessary, especially "comfort food." I've never read Letters from Father Christmas before, but this is comfort food. Tolkien's Father Christmas is kind and funny, a good artist, a man who engages in funny repartee with Polar Bear, who often comments on Father Christmas's letters to Tolkien's children with "Rude!"

Father Christmas's letters to Tolkien's four children were written between 1920 and 1943. They are largely filled with the sounds of an active and happy family, as in Polar Bear's comments (in bold) on Father Christmas's letter.

I have drawn you a picture of it all. Polar Bear was rather grumpy at my drawing it:

Of course, naturally.

He says my Christmas pictures always make fun of him and that one year he will send one drawn by himself of me being idiotic (but of course I never am, and he can’t draw well enough).

Yes I can. – 1928 (p. 39)

Father Christmas's drawings cannot help but make me smile:



More than that, Father Christmas's drawings are accompanied by his handwritten letters, replete with his "shaky" handwriting (he was more than 1900 years old when writing these letters).



Father Christmas was writing the Tolkien children during some difficult times, which occasionally entered his letters. In 1932, he wrote:

I am not able to carry quite as much toy-cargo as usual this year, as I am taking a good deal of food and clothes (useful stuff): there are far too many people in your land, and others, who are hungry and cold this winter. (p. 85)

And in 1940, he wrote Priscilla:

I wonder what you will think of my picture. “Penguins don’t live at the North Pole,” you will say. I know they don’t, but we have got some all the same. What you would call “evacuees”, I believe (not a very nice word); except that they did not come here to escape the war, but to find it! They had heard such stories of the happenings up in the North (including a quite untrue story that Polar Bear and all the Polar Cubs had been blown up, and that I had been captured by Goblins) that they swam all the way here to see if they could help me. Nearly 50 arrived. (pp. 141-142)

Just writing this review made me smile, as Father Christmas's letters are filled with love without a hint of saccharine. Enjoy!

Thank you, Cecily, for your review, which encouraged me to read this book.

December 2020: My previous comments could be repeated in spades: this book was comfort food in a difficult year. I'm also (re)reading Fellowship of the Rings, with which this partnered well. This may become a holiday tradition.