Christmas 2010 - More Father Christmas illustrations.

Merry Christmas!


Here are some images from Tolkien's Father Christmas Letters, not the same as I posted last year.

Below, one of the regular characters in the Father Christmas letters, the naughty [North] Polar Bear, gets into a scrape, crashing into the North Pole, which in turn crashes into Father Christmas's house. The pole and house must be rebuilt.


From the 1925 letter, showing why Father Christmas's house came to be relocated to the top of an ice cliff, out of harm's way:






Letters from subsequent years show views of the rebuilt North Pole and house. Both pictures are very lovely, I think. The earlier shows the aurora borealis, the later shows the scene under the stars. The sense of awe and wonder that runs through all of Tolkien's work is much in evidence in these illustrations he made to amuse his children.


1926 ~ Father Christmas watches the Northen Lights:







1927 ~ A Night Scene:








Tolkien stopped making Father Christmas letters when his children became too old. Priscilla, the youngest, received the last of them. Below is an illustration, full of charm, for the letter Tolkien wrote in 1940. Note how it differs in style from previous drawings, the bodies of the subjects more realistically rendered. I wonder if the change of style would have been permanent, had he made the Christmas letters for more years.



1940 ~ 'A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year': the penguins have come to help Polar Bear after Father Christmas is kidnapped by goblins. As is usual for Polar Bear, they don't get much accomplished, playing on the ice instead:






A very happy, grace-filled holiday to you all!


~ Mechtild