Father Christmas

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Father Christmas
J.R.R. Tolkien - From Father Christmas, Me.jpg
"From Father Christmas, Me" by J.R.R. Tolkien
Information
Other namesFather Nicholas Christmas, Nicholas Christmas, Daddy Noel
LocationThe Arctic
Physical Description
GenderMale
Hair colorGrey

Father Christmas is the name of the gift-giving figure of Christmas. He sent letters to the Tolkien children from 1920 to 1943 and they are collected in a book called Letters from Father Christmas.

Characteristics[edit | edit source]

Father Christmas was magical and his magic was especially powerful on Christmas.[1] Father Christmas had very shaky handwriting being over 1900 years old by the time he started writing the letters.[2] He was prone to stress which made his handwriting even worse.[3]

History[edit | edit source]

Father Christmas wrote his first letter to John Tolkien in 1920 after the then three-year-old,[4] John had asked what Father Christmas was like and where he lived.[5]

Christmas in 1924 was very busy so he didn't have time to write a full letter but he wrote a short letter to both John and Hilary wishing them well and explaining he didn't have time to write a letter because he had to go deliver presents.[6][7]

In 1925, Father Christmas had to move from the Christmas House to the Cliff House. The North Polar Bear had tried to rescue his hood that had been blown onto the roof and fell through the roof and made a hole in the living room.[3]

1926 was a very stressful year. The North Polar Bear set off a firework which turned the North Pole black, shook the stars and cracked the moon into four and the Man in the Moon had fallen. He ate a lot of Father Christmas' chocolates before returning to the moon. Then the reindeer got loose and ran wild around the North Pole. The North Polar Bear then turned on two years worth of Northern Lights.[8] Because of this there were no Northern Lights until 1928[9]

In 1932, Father Christmas and the North Polar Bear discovered a tunnel in their cellar leading from the caves that had been dug by Goblins. The Goblins stole all of the items from the main cellar and although they were able to get the items back, Mr Cave Bear, his sons and the Gnome-ladies had to help prepare for Christmas in order to be done in time.[10]

Other names[edit | edit source]

Father Christmas also signed his letters as Father Nicholas Christmas,[11][12][13][14][15] or just Nicholas Christmas.[16] In one letter, the North Polar Bear calls him Daddy Noel.[16]

External links[edit | edit source]

References

The world of the Letters from Father Christmas
Main characters: Father Christmas · North Polar Bear · Ilbereth
Other characters: Mr Cave Bear · Green Brother · Grandfather Yule
Man in the Moon · Paksu & Valkotukka · Snow Man
Races & Peoples: Goblins · Green elves · Red Elves · Snow-elves · Snow-men
Other concepts: Arktik · Goblin Alphabet · Windbeam