Father Christmas Letters: 1920 - 1924

[Estelyn Telcontar]

Introduction

The title of this thread is actually no longer accurate - this book is now known as: Letters from Father Christmas. (Earlier editions had the above title, so among Tolkien readers, it's often still called that.) Various versions have been published, including one that has actual envelopes and separate letters in it. (I looked at that one several years back and decided that it was rather impractical for reading!) I'm not sure if the one I have (Houghton Mifflin, 2004) includes all of the letters that exist - I hope others will contribute if that is not the case. I have the years 1920, then 1923 - 1943. [According to Scull and Hammond, Companion and Guide, there are no existent letters for 1921-22.]

This book is unusual in that it is the only one of JRRT's that is edited by Baillie Tolkien, his daughter-in-law (Christopher's wife). She had worked as Tolkien Sr.'s secretary for awhile, so she was obviously familiar with his work in her own right as well as through her husband. Fortunately, the books contain not only the text of the letters, but also the delightful pictures that Tolkien drew, including the ingenious stamps, replicas of the original letters with their characteristic handwriting, and some of the envelopes. Without those visual impressions, much would be missing!

Let's start with the very first letter. [This thread will progress to include the second and third, as they are all quite brief.]

1920

Tolkien's oldest son John was only three years old when he received the first letter, a relatively short and simple one. It introduces us to Father Christmas' shaky handwriting, supposedly due to the writer's old age, and has a page with two pictures, one of Father Christmas himself and the other of his house.

Please share with us your impressions of this first letter and perhaps tell us which edition of the book you have at hand. I look forward to reading what you have to say!

[Lalwendë]

We've got a few different editions, including the one with the little envelopes and letters. Even I'm a bit scared of reading that one. I wonder will the standard paperback be enough? I bought one of those in a remainder book shop for Alfie last Christmas because I thought it was better getting a cheap paperback if it stood any risk of getting jam and chocolate on it - and I'm thinking of maybe reading it to him in the next week or so...whether this means I have time to post owt regularly is another matter...

Kind of looking forwards to him insisting yet again: "Santa does not come down the chimney. He can't!"

[Estelyn Telcontar]

I was asked if I will include pictures in this discussion. That's a great idea - I don't know if I will find all of the illustrations online, but whenever possible, I will post them. Here's the picture of Father Christmas and his house that Tolkien drew for the first letter:



This picture of Father Christmas also appears on the cover of my edition and several others.

What details do you find interesting in the pictures?

[Lalwendë]

1920 and an image of Father Christmas wearing the familiar red and white outfit. So the next time someone tries to go all 'bah humbug' and tell you that Coca-Cola invented 'Santa', you can show them this picture and tell them that they didn't start using this image of Father Christmas until the 1930s!

I like his pixie hood and that he seems to live in a yurt.

Also, the envelope is also addressed to 'Mrs Tolkien' - would that be because of John being too young to read it himself?

[Estelyn Telcontar]

I was wondering about the colour of the outfit. It occurred to me that another Inkling also wrote Father Christmas into one of his stories, so I got out the first Narnia book and looked it up. Lewis also has FC wearing "a bright red robe with a hood that had fur inside it", so there must be some basis for that. Do any Brits know more about the traditional Father Christmas garb?

Thanks for the info concerning the envelope - that one is not pictured in my edition.

His house does look rather exotic, doesn't it?! Those icy pillars surrounding it are like upside-down icicles.

[Bêthberry]

What a lovely idea, Estelyn! I don't have a copy of the Christmas letters and haven't read them but I have admired Tolkien's drawings for them--even down to the stamps!

In fact last year I used one of the illustrations for my Christmas avatar, so this year it will be even more apt.

The roundness of Father Christmas' house makes me think of Scandinavian depictions of the figure--it isn't really an Inuit igloo!

Lal, it will be interesting to hear your tyke's thoughts on the letters and drawings!

[Estelyn Telcontar]

1923

The second letter we have was written three years after the first one. It is again addressed to John but includes Father Christmas' love to his brother Michael. My book has no picture, just the replica of the letter in FC's iconic shaky handwriting. I would imagine that this had the purpose of disguising JRRT's own handwriting so that his children wouldn't recognise it.

Two more bits of information are included: FC mentions his age (nineteen hundred and twenty four, no! seven!) and announces which gift he is bringing.

What impression do you get when reading this letter?

[littlemanpoet]

The top picture puts you right in winter time. The falling snow is so true to experience! And I love the shadows cast behind the trees and monoliths (or whatever they are) by the light of the bright moon.

What exactly are the monoliths?

[Lalwendë]

Originally Posted by Estelyn Telcontar

1923

Two more bits of information are included: FC mentions his age (nineteen hundred and twenty four, no! seven!) and announces which gift he is bringing.

He's a Time Lord! But seriously, that age intrigued me. It's 1923 but Father Christmas is 1,927. I can't remember but wasn't there some kind of dispute about the birth of Jesus, he was either born 4 years before or after the point at which BC turns into AD? Might that have something to do with his age?

[Estelyn Telcontar]

Interesting question, Elempi! I was thinking that they look like snow stalagmites, but they are not under the eaves of the house, so how would they have been formed? And they're not trees (which was another first thought of mine) because the trees that are shown are not snow-covered. Actually, I wonder - why not?! You'd think anything at the North Pole would be covered by snow and/or ice. Some kind of standing stones? More new questions than answers...

Lal, I think you're on the right track concerning the age - there is a slight discrepancy between the historical year 0 and the actual date of Christ's birth. And Father Christmas would come into existence with the birth of Jesus, I guess - at least Tolkien imagined it to be so.

However, there's an inconsistency between that date and the name with which FC signs - the only time, as far as I have seen at least: "Father Nicholas Christmas". That would point to St. Nicholas (who morphed into Santa Claus), born much later than Jesus.

One thing I enjoyed about the second letter was JRRT's little pun:

I send you lots of love (and lots for Michael too) and Lotts Bricks too (which are called that because there are lots more for you to have next year...)

[Estelyn Telcontar]

One last letter for this thread - you are welcome to continue commenting on the first two as you have time and opportunity to read them.

1924

There are two letters for this year, one for John, one for Michael. My edition of the book also pictures the envelope that was made for Michael's letter, 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. Typical Tolkien to pay such painstaking attention to details like that! Other than that, my edition shows no drawing - does anyone have something different in their book?

[Lalwendë]

The toys mentioned are quite interesting (especially to someone toy mad like me). Lott's Bricks were manufactured from about WWI through to the 1960s - prior to WWI there wasn't a huge toy industry in the UK, most were imported from germany, but then an import ban was imposed on German made toys and a lot of manufacturers of classic British toys were born during that period. Lott's Bricks were one of them. They were sets of wooden construction toys with bricks, windows, doors and cardboard roof pieces. They weren't locking pieces like LEGO which eventually took over in popularity. My dad had some of these that he'd been given when he was a child in the 1930s.

Picabrix was more like wooden Meccano.

They were both pretty swish, advanced and expensive toys for their time. A bit like getting an Innotab or one of those ride-in daleks nowadays. My dad was given Meccano in about 1939 and a bike the year before and he says that was considered being spoilt!

Lott's Bricks:
Lott's Bricks

Picabrix:
Picabrix

Picabrix

[Legate of Amon Lanc]

Originally Posted by Bêthberry

In fact last year I used one of the illustrations for my Christmas avatar, so this year it will be even more apt.

Exactly! A lovely avvie there, Bb. I feel also that this rises my traditional Christmas-avvie to a completely new level (since I've had this for every Christmas, I think, since the second year of my 'Downsing).

Originally Posted by Bêthberry

The roundness of Father Christmas' house makes me think of Scandinavian depictions of the figure--it isn't really an Inuit igloo!

So how do North American depictions of the house look like, anyway?

For that matter, I wouldn't find this surprising at all - Tolkien's FC seems to be much more "European", and so why not "more Scandinavian". As I believe we will bump to that also in the future, there is this interesting thing (and now putting aside all possible personal indoctrinations of mine, if you get my meaning) about something Finnish in Tolkien's "Father Christmas Letters-setting", so to say (what made me think of this is the polar bears' identity, but like I said, we'll get into that eventually). So I wonder if that is where this "Scandinavian tone" comes from - because the whole setting was somewhat Scandinavian to begin with, perhaps?

Originally Posted by Estelyn Telcontar

Interesting question, Elempi! I was thinking that they look like snow stalagmites, but they are not under the eaves of the house, so how would they have been formed? And they're not trees (which was another first thought of mine) because the trees that are shown are not snow-covered. Actually, I wonder - why not?! You'd think anything at the North Pole would be covered by snow and/or ice. Some kind of standing stones? More new questions than answers...

Now that would certainly raise interest. What about standing "stones" made actually of snow/ice? You know, like, if you want to put up standing stones up there, you don't really have the material, so you make them out of something else... in this case, snow.

Lal, I think you're on the right track concerning the age - there is a slight discrepancy between the historical year 0 and the actual date of Christ's birth. And Father Christmas would come into existence with the birth of Jesus, I guess - at least Tolkien imagined it to be so.

However, there's an inconsistency between that date and the name with which FC signs - the only time, as far as I have seen at least: "Father Nicholas Christmas". That would point to St. Nicholas (who morphed into Santa Claus), born much later than Jesus.

I think the original thought about the birth of Jesus makes sense. As for the St. Nicholas thing, I think it wouldn't matter in that respect - I would say Tolkien was thinking along the lines that Father Christmas is simply Father Christmas, as a powerful magical being as old as Christmas, he simply was born at the same as the reason for Christmas was - and that means, of course, at the same as Christ. There are some other things related to this in one of the latter letters, if I recall correctly, so maybe let's wait with it up to then. But generally, I think Tolkien did not care that much about making it correlate with history, but rather with beliefs of people: if some people also associate Christmas with St. Nicholas (or Santa Claus), then of course he is the same figure as FC. So his first name might be very well Nicholas. (It has also the good effect that Tolkien's kids won't be confused when they suddenly encounter something about some Nicholas. They would just know it's the same person.)

Originally Posted by Estelyn Telcontar

There are two letters for this year, one for John, one for Michael. My edition of the book also pictures the envelope that was made for Michael's letter, 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. Typical Tolkien to pay such painstaking attention to details like that! Other than that, my edition shows no drawing - does anyone have something different in their book?

That's brilliant, yes. As for my edition - this is maybe a good time for me to say that: I do have only a Czech translation (however I don't think that disqualifies me from the discussion!) of the Letters which was published here in 1995. Nonetheless, it has all the pictures and stuff and even some photocopies of the original letters (but only of some of them) - others are just translated. However, the letters from 1920-4 are exactly the only one thing which is more or less missing here. There are the few pictures you have mentioned, a photocopy of the 1920 letter, three stamps (including the 1924 one), and then a picture of FC coming over Oxford with his reindeers - with a photocopy of the letter (or part of it) in which he speaks about the picture. However, there is no indication of when the letter is from, or anything else. Most curious. Could you perhaps tell me what it is?

I'm also very curious as to why so much of the 1920-4 stuff is omitted (all later letters are in there in full). I am not able to figure out exactly which edition my book is translated from, but maybe you will be able to figure out what is it, either if you have some similarly weird edition in English or if you can tell by this: my book at least says that it was translated from the original "The Father Christmas Letters, London: HarperCollins 1993".

[Aiwendil]

Originally Posted by Legate of Amon Lanc

I am not able to figure out exactly which edition my book is translated from, but maybe you will be able to figure out what is it, either if you have some similarly weird edition in English or if you can tell by this: my book at least says that it was translated from the original "The Father Christmas Letters, London: HarperCollins 1993".

I have the 1993 Harper Collins edition, and though I (alas!) am currently separated from it by a few hundred miles, I'm pretty sure it is just as you described your Czech edition: it has a picture of the 1920 letter and a few pictures of stamps and such from 1920 - 1924, but it only prints the full text of the letters starting from 1925. If I recall correctly, it's also missing the penultimate letter.

[Estelyn Telcontar]

Lal, thank you for that interesting information on the building blocks! I was wondering what they might be like. The Picabrix remind me of the wooden Tinkertoys I played with as a child.

Nice to see Legate joining the seasonal avvie club with the FCL picture! Yes, the Finnish influence will show up more as the years go by. The picture of FC flying over Oxford was drawn in 1932 and can be seen there, as part of an whole page of illustrations. I don't think anything was omitted from the early years - apparently that's all that there was, or at least all that survived. Remember, the children were very young at the beginning, and Tolkien's stories always grow in the telling!

[Guinevere]

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", Lalwendë!

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.

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 !

[Legate of Amon Lanc]

Originally Posted by Aiwendil

I have the 1993 Harper Collins edition, and though I (alas!) am currently separated from it by a few hundred miles, I'm pretty sure it is just as you described your Czech edition: it has a picture of the 1920 letter and a few pictures of stamps and such from 1920 - 1924, but it only prints the full text of the letters starting from 1925. If I recall correctly, it's also missing the penultimate letter.

Yes, that would be probably it then, so thanks for clarification. And which "penultimate letter" do you actually mean?

Originally Posted by Estelyn Telcontar

Nice to see Legate joining the seasonal avvie club with the FCL picture!

Well, like I said, it's my classic Christmas pic which I've had already for more than four years (or, now it is the fifth) every Christmas - so that is, of course, only natural. Only this time it very nicely coincides with this thread

As for the "reindeer over Oxford" picture - I find it worth mentioning at least: did anybody of you think of the symbolism of numbers which seems to be pointed out in the accompanying letter? FC emphasises that the kids should note he has seven pairs of reindeers instead of the generally acknowledged six - any idea why to give such a strong importance to this? Isn't it curious? Such a random thing? My personal belief is that this has a lot to do with Tolkien's personal feeling, and I would very much like to know more about it even in general. FC says in the letter that "fourteen is such a nice number" and that is what I believe is Tolkien's personal, and very strong, feeling, in fact. I mean: we also have fourteen Valar, seven and seven, just like the reindeer pairs. Coincidence? By no means, in my opinion.

It continues to intrigue me, and it has been intriguing me for a long time, so that's maybe why I noticed this also here, but why? Yes, fourteen is two times seven, and seven is really a nice number. But wouldn't it be even better, for example in the case of Morgoth and the Valar, to have twelve Valar (and now given that Tolkien was a devout Christian, make it similar e.g. to the twelve apostles...) and Morgoth with the ominous number thirteen, which is generally seen as "evil number" (unlike 15, which is just random)? Might he have wanted to avoid the possible "evil connotations" of number 6? Or what else might have been behind that?

I see this could do for a separate thread - but let me just remark here that I consider this deliberate choice and underlining of the fact that "hey, I don't have 12 reindeers, but 14" rather interesting. Especially in this case: like I said, for Tolkien, a devout Christian, the number 12 should have a very positive metaphorical value; it appears in the Bible and in Christianity in general so many times (the abovementioned 12 apostles, 12 tribes of Israel, all things related to salvation and New Jerusalem in the book of Revelation are expressed in metaphors with numbers that are multiplies of 12, or 12 times 12, etc etc...) in the most positive connotations that there should not be any reasons for him to specifically reject it.

I mean, personally, I also very much like the number 14 - although I am rather strongly convinced that it is, in fact, Tolkien's influence - but why to devote such a large part of the letter devoted to this topic? One would say there might have been more important things to write.

Unless he was trying to teach the children numbers

Originally Posted by Guinevere

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 !

Now that is just an interesting remark - I wasn't aware that the St. Nicholas 6th Dec tradition exists in other countries beside where I live. And I must confess I had been also similarly confused about the origins of the Christmas tradition of Father Christmas.

Relatedly, I might contribute with what is perhaps just a curiosity, but nonetheless maybe interesting for some - the name of the book (and the name of the character) has been translated, in the book which I have (so, in Czech) as "Děda Mráz", i.e. "[Grand]father Frost", which is the Russian character who is the one responsible for giving presents over there. Since here, we don't have Santa Claus or any similar "old man" figure (we have the Baby Jesus tradition related to giving presents), but the Father Frost figure is known to people around here (especially after recent past, when an unsuccessful and, I must say rather terribly done attempt was made in the 1950's to install here the at that time Soviet-Russian Father Frost in order to suppress any Christian relations to Christmas; but there's also a very nice Russian movie "Father Frost" which they are showing every Christmas and most people love it), I guess the translator chose to translate "Father Christmas" as this "Father Frost", instead of trying to make any weird neologisms or translating it as Santa Claus (which would be also known by people nowadays, but equally inappropriate, if not even more).

[Estelyn Telcontar]

Legate, we'll pick up your interesting thoughts on the number of reindeer when we get to that letter - you have brought up some good questions on that topic!

I wonder - does the translation as "Father Frost" work for casual readers who have little or no background in Tolkien?

[Legate of Amon Lanc]

Originally Posted by Estelyn Telcontar

Legate, we'll pick up your interesting thoughts on the number of reindeer when we get to that letter - you have brought up some good questions on that topic!

Ah, my mistake, somehow I probably misread what you said and thought it was from 1922 letter, not '32, therefore I thought that we are already past it (especially given that in my edition, the picture appears randomly on one of the first pages with no date next to it). Okay, I shall repost my thoughts later when we get that far.

I wonder - does the translation as "Father Frost" work for casual readers who have little or no background in Tolkien?

Well, what do you exactly mean by that it "works"? It is clear to them, for sure, that it is not about the Russian fellow, if that's what you mean; if only just from the fact that there is talk about Britain in there.