Letters from Father Christmas
A fun family review for the Advent season...
There are some Christmas traditions that just simply must be a part of the holiday festivities. My children always list listening to Handel’s Messiah, watching The Nativity movie, and reading Tolkien’s Letters from Father Christmas.
I wrote this review that appears today at Story Warren. At the end of the review, you’ll find ideas for activities to do together as a family as you read (or listen!) to this timeless holiday tome.
I hope your family is enjoying a cozy Advent… ours has been a little scattered so far: late night Christmas parties, an overflowing septic tank, and sub zero windchills. However, I think that makes the anticipation and joy of the coming celebration of the Birth of the Prince of Peace that much more treasured. Thanks for reading along…
In 1920, a small boy asked his father a simple question: “What is Father Christmas like and where does he live?”
In answer, the father began the tradition of writing a newsy letter from Father Christmas to his children, detailing the preparations for the holiday, the past year’s events, and other fun tidbits from the North Pole.
The letters he wrote span from 1920 to 1943 and give insight into family life, political and economic affairs in England, and the imagination of J.R.R. Tolkien, for he is the father who penned these extraordinary letters.
In the centenary edition of Tolkien’s Letters from Father Christmas, edited by Baillie Tolkien, full color photographs of the envelopes and letters are included, showing off Tolkien’s imitation of Father Christmas’s very shaky handwriting and his fascinating pen and ink drawings of life in the North Pole.
Though our family has never included legends or traditions of Santa Claus in our own Christmas celebrations, my children have loved reading Tolkien’s Letters from Father Christmas. I have loved it too, as I have looked back on my own father’s “Santa letters.” Perhaps, with Father Christmas’s involvement, a father feels less sentimental and more able to express the emotion of his deepest feelings as he pens loving words to his children….
Read the rest of this article at Story Warren right HERE.