Letters from Father Christmas by J. R. R. Tolkien

Title: Letters from Father Christmas
Author: J. R. R. Tolkien
Page Count: 113
Rating: B+
Format: Kindle
Genre: Letters/Holiday
Keywords: Adventure, Santa, Polar Bears
Kid Appropriate: Yes

Synopsis from Goodreads:

Every December an envelope bearing a stamp from the North Pole would arrive for J.R.R. Tolkien’s children. Inside would be a letter in a strange, spidery handwriting and a beautiful colored drawing or painting. The letters were from Father Christmas.

They told wonderful tales of life at the North Pole: how the reindeer got loose and scattered presents all over the place; how the accident-prone North Polar Bear climbed the North Pole and fell through the roof of Father Christmas’s house into the dining room; how he broke the Moon into four pieces and made the Man in it fall into the back garden; how there were wars with the troublesome horde of goblins who lived in the caves beneath the house, and many more.

No reader, young or old, can fail to be charmed by Tolkien’s inventiveness in this classic holiday treat.

My Review:

I stumbled across this book when Amazon had a sale going on nearly all of their Tolkien Kindle books. While I had all of the LOTR books and some of his biographies I had never picked up this book. Based on the cover I was expecting maybe a children's story about Santa Claus. Instead I found a touching tradition carried out over decades by a devoted father.

Already a long time Tolkien fan, I was pleasantly surprised by this collection of letters that he wrote over the course of twenty years to his four children as Father Christmas. First, the letters and accompanying illustrations were absolutely gorgeous and I highly recommend either reading the physical book or the ebook on a tablet with color. I would have been incredibly disappointed to read this on my regular Kindle. The level of dedication and love put into this tradition is obvious and endearing.

Second, the antics that Father Christmas and his host of friends including North Polar Bear (PB) get up to was entertaining and absolutely adorable. Unlike The Hobbit (and most certainly the LOTR series), this book would not frighten little ones. Immediately the idea of reading a letter a night to a child leading up to Christmas popped into my mind.

If you're looking for a touch of Tolkien magic, a new family tradition, or just something to get you into the Christmas mood I definitely recommend picking this up.

The only downfall to this collection was that we only get to see the letters that Father Christmas wrote in response to the Tolkien children and the accompanying illustrations. Overall, it makes a fairly cohesive storyline but there were moments where I was a touch confused because I did not have the child's letter being referenced.