The Father Christmas letters are truly delightful to read, especially with the pictures and facsimiles!( I have the Houghton Mifflin edition 2004)
I cannot imagine a more wonderful gift that a father could make for his children! Not only the content, with all the amusing ideas, but all the loving care that went into the drawings and the writing - which is beautiful calligraphy inspite of the intended wobbliness.
I, too was intrigued by the "1924 - no, 7" in 1924 letter. Thanks for the elucidation!
And thanks for the information about "Lott's bricks" and "Picabrix",
Lalwendė!
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Originally Posted by Estelyn Telcontar
with a lovely hand-drawn "North Pole" stamp. It shows a blazing setting or rising sun with one of those ice monoliths in front of it.
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But that's the North POLE of course! I always found this pun amusing. Perhaps the other "monoliths" are poles as well? And the blazing sunset or rise might be Northern lights too - as on Legate's current avatar (which is the illustration from the 1926 letter, showing all the Northern lights for two years going off in one go)
As for the "Nicholas" part and the red coat (which I think originates perhaps in the red Bishop's cloak of Saint Nicholas) I have just recently read a lot in the internet about the origins of Father Christmas and St. Nicholas, and how elements of the two have merged. Coming from a country where there is no tradition of a "Father Christmas" or "Weihnachtsmann", but a "Samichlaus" (= St. Nikolaus) visiting the children on Dec. 6th with sweets and nuts (but also reprimanding them if they haven't been well-behaved!), I never had examined the "Father Christmas" or Weihnachtsmann tradition until now - I thought that he was just St. Nicholas visiting on Christmas instead of on his name day !