While the first letter was a reasonably short affair, assuring John that Father Christmas was on his way to Oxford from the North Pole with a “bundle of toys”, the festive missives grew in length, complexity and artistry till Tolkien was regaling his children with all sorts of richly imaginative, beautifully illustrated stories.ġ928: The illustrations by Tolkien are just gorgeous, full of whimsey, colour and extraordinary levels of detail. Tolkein ( The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit) who from 1920, when he penned his first letter as Santa, to 1944 when the last envelope bearing a Polar postage stamp arrived, received annual letters from father Christmas himself.

So it must have been, you like to think, for John, Michael, Christopher and Priscilla, the children of famous author J.

Having a highly creative parent must, in theory at least, be a wonderful thing.Īssuming they have both the inclination and the time after plying their craft for a living, having Paul McCartney sing you to sleep with Beatles-esque nursery rhymes, or Meryl Street act out a story for you in vividly dramatic detail, or even Claude Money whip up a pastel-hued painting for your nursery room, must rank or have ranked as a magical thing indeed.

Tolkien christmas