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A review by book_concierge
Letters from Father Christmas, Centenary Edition by J.R.R. Tolkien
4.0
This lovely volume – I had the centenary edition – duplicates the letters from Father Christmas which were sent to Tolkien’s children beginning in 1920 and continuing for the next twenty-three years. The letters relate the many adventures Father Christmas and his helpers – The North Polar Bear, elves, etc – have both in preparation for the big day and throughout the year.
Tolkein seriously disguised his handwriting / printing, using a very shaky hand that is quite difficult for these old eyes, so I’m grateful for the printed text accompanying the photos of each letter. If I were a young person I would probably try to memorize Polar Bear’s unique alphabet and use that to write notes to my friends (something I did with Tolkein’s Elven runes back in the day after reading The Hobbit). I much enjoyed the inventiveness of these missives and loved the hand-drawn illustrations of the Northern Lights, or a Goblin War, or a flood caused by … well, I won’t spoil it for you.
My only disappointment is that we don’t see any of the letters Tolkien’s children wrote back to Father Christmas.
Still, it’s a treasure to be enjoyed by more generations of both children and adults.
Tolkein seriously disguised his handwriting / printing, using a very shaky hand that is quite difficult for these old eyes, so I’m grateful for the printed text accompanying the photos of each letter. If I were a young person I would probably try to memorize Polar Bear’s unique alphabet and use that to write notes to my friends (something I did with Tolkein’s Elven runes back in the day after reading The Hobbit). I much enjoyed the inventiveness of these missives and loved the hand-drawn illustrations of the Northern Lights, or a Goblin War, or a flood caused by … well, I won’t spoil it for you.
My only disappointment is that we don’t see any of the letters Tolkien’s children wrote back to Father Christmas.
Still, it’s a treasure to be enjoyed by more generations of both children and adults.