Kick this year's Christmas season into gear with the holiday tales from one of the world's favorite authors, J.R.R. Tolkien. His book, Letters From Father Christmas, is a compilation of all the letters his kids received from Father Christmas (better known as Santa Claus in the United States.) Yes, Santa actually wrote to his kids, Every Christmas, in response to the kind letters the Tolkien kids wrote him.
Each letter is a fun little story that reveals the life of a Santa Claus and the problems he faces in order to deliver presents to the children around the world. Being that this book is written by Tolkien, there are of course interactions with goblins, talking animals, elves and so forth. I imagine Santa wrote these letters along the same time Tolkien wrote his Hobbit and Lord Of The Rings series.
Letters From Father Christmas explains a bit about who Nicholas Christmas is and what his life is like at the North Pole. He writes his letters as he busily prepares for the next Christmas delivery, and every year it's a little busier. But not too busy for a long summer nap, at least that's what Santa's assistant, a polar bear named Karhu, says. The polar bear makes comments in the letters, especially after Santa describes some of the horrible messes Karhu seems to cause. Karhu helps Santa with his day to day tasks, and a little protection. (Not many beasts will fight against a polar bear.) However he often stumbles into mischievous adventures, one of them includes setting off a huge gunpowder explosion. It was large enough to knock the man in the moon out of the moon! (It's okay though, he stayed at the North Pole for a bit.)
Father Christmas also gets help writing letters from Ilbereth, his elf-secretary. Ilbereth even writes an an elvish language. He must be related to some of those elves in The Lord Of The Rings.
Letters From Father Christmas is a short story. It may take a few hours to read the whole thing, or listen to the audiobook. I don't think it's that kind of read thought, not one you'd want to take in during one sitting. It's more of a holiday primer that you grab each night to inject a bit more spirit into your Christmas season.
I highly recommend letters from Father Christmas! If your kids love The Lord Of The Rings trilogy or The Hobbit, they'll enjoy the letters to Father Christmas.
Note from Karhu: these letters are written well! I worked hard on my handwriting so you could read it. All of the polar bears love them, and so will you!
Note from Ilbereth: please don't let these previous letters dissuade you from writing Father Christmas! He loves to get your letters too! Your kids will like their own letters better, but I'm sure they'll still find these fun to read!
Note from Father Christmas: And be sure to write me! I so love to hear how you and your children are doing! Remember to hand your stockings over the fireplace, and have a very merry Christmas!
As you know, I enjoy a good audiobook and frequently shop on audible. I happily found this book on sale during the Christmas season of 2018 for about $3. It's something that your children can listen to on their Amazon Alexa or in the car while driving to spend Christmas with your family. The narration is wonderful spoken by a deep-voiced British actor. (Well it was sounded like a British actor, it may be an American for all I know. However it was very pleasant and I enjoyed it.) He did a good job on the different voices of the characters and wasn't too fast or too slow. It was a highly enjoyable listen!
Ben Russell is author of "Noah Drake And The Dragon Killer". He writes Juvenile/Middle Grade Fiction Adventures. He's not a scientist or a doctor of history; he's just a guy that's interested in those subjects. He's very interested in creation. His inner child gets excited about dinosaurs and the idea that they're not millions of years old. He despises the theory of evolution, believing it's a stumbling block to the Christian faith. Ben is a family man. He and his lovely wife have four happy kids and they make their home among the roaming hills of the Missouri Ozarks.
