The Podcast of the Lotus Eaters - December 20, 2025


PREVIEW： Chronicles #27 ｜ Letters From Father Christmas


Episode Stats

Length

14 minutes

Words per Minute

145.68309

Word Count

2,148

Sentence Count

17


Summary

J.R.R Tolkien's letters to his four children, John, Michael, Christopher and the youngest, Priscilla, are some of the most beautifully written and beautifully illustrated letters ever written by a fictional character posing as Father Christmas.


Transcript

00:00:00.000 Merry Christmas friends and welcome to Chronicles. Today we're going to be talking all about
00:00:19.160 Letters from Father Christmas by J.R.R. Tolkien because you've all been such wonderful fans of
00:00:26.980 the show. You've been so well behaved in the comments section this year and so I thought that
00:00:33.080 giving you some Tolkien would be a very genuine Christmas present from myself to you and I hope
00:00:40.640 that you really enjoy it. Now the Letters from Father Christmas are a really really beautiful
00:00:48.780 book. It couldn't strictly be called a novel nor could it really be called a novel by letters even
00:00:57.640 though that's what they are. Really what you have here with Letters from Father Christmas is private
00:01:04.680 letters written by Tolkien posing as Father Christmas to his four children to John, Michael, Christopher
00:01:14.160 and the youngest Priscilla over the space of about 23 years. Now these are very very sweet and I
00:01:24.160 actually think as well there is something in there for both children and adults as well. It's a really
00:01:30.780 really beautiful book. It's graced with some of Tolkien's drawings as well because as well as being
00:01:38.260 master of languages and having one of the great imaginations Tolkien was also a wonderful drawer and so
00:01:46.740 when you actually look at the images from these letters as they came in the in the envelopes and with
00:01:54.220 the drawings inside these are absolutely spectacular. But even if it isn't in a technical sense an
00:02:01.480 epistillary novel it does still have a through line. There is a great deal of continuity in it
00:02:08.140 and very much you can tell in the way that Tolkien is writing it much as he did with Middle Earth as
00:02:14.860 well. Middle Earth like the land of the North Pole as we'll see here is actually something that already
00:02:21.380 exists and Tolkien is not in the business of creating a new world so much as he is discovering a new world
00:02:29.940 as if the thing were real in and of itself and it's already here waiting to be discovered particularly of
00:02:37.020 course by his four children though we'll get into the analysis of it all after we've spoken about
00:02:43.740 it. I will just say as well actually before we begin that this particular text you'll see here
00:02:50.220 says edited by Bailey Tolkien. Now Bailey was the second wife of sorry I say was I do believe she's still
00:03:00.740 alive in fact the second wife of the late wonderful Christopher Tolkien who of course was an exemplary
00:03:09.700 son and a true steward of all of his father's works having a lot of Tolkien's writings on Middle Earth
00:03:17.300 that he couldn't get published in his own time eventually finding their way to the publishers so
00:03:22.580 that we could enjoy such things as the Silmarillion, Children of Hurin and other wonderful tales,
00:03:29.140 Roverandum is another example and so yeah absolutely wonderful stuff but these letters were thought lost
00:03:38.580 and discovered in a draw in very very good condition a few years after Tolkien passed away back in 73 and so
00:03:48.420 we're graced with them now and I would encourage you to make them a staple of your own Christmas
00:03:54.500 and I will go through the plot I've employed a lot of extracts from the text itself on this particular
00:04:01.460 occasion and so let us hear some wonderful Christmassy words from Father Christmas himself
00:04:08.340 in Father Christmas first letter to Tolkien's eldest son John who was just three years old at the time of
00:04:21.380 this writing we're treated to a simple but enchanted introduction to our great hero
00:04:29.140 dear John I heard you ask daddy what I was like and where I lived I have drawn me and my house for you
00:04:36.980 take care of the picture I am just off now for Oxford with my bundle of toys some for you hope I
00:04:44.900 shall arrive in time the snow is very thick at the North Pole tonight your loving Father Christmas
00:04:52.100 a few years on John receives another letter from Father Christmas and this time we see
00:04:57.940 Tolkien fleshing out his characterization with Father Christmas's staple signature shaky handwriting
00:05:05.220 my dear John it is very cold today and my hand is very shaky I am 1924 no seven years old on Christmas
00:05:17.460 day lots older than your great grandfather so I can't stop the pen wobbling but I hear that you are
00:05:24.820 getting so good at reading that I expect you will be able to read my letter I send you lots of love and
00:05:32.180 lots for Michael too and lots bricks too which are called that because there are lots more for you to
00:05:38.100 have next year if you let me know in good time I think they are prettier and stronger and tidier than
00:05:45.140 pick bricks so I hope you will like them now I must go it is a lovely fine night and I have got hundreds of
00:05:52.740 miles to go before morning there is such a lot to do a cold kiss from father Nicholas Christmas
00:06:01.460 John's letter from 1924 is brief as father Christmas is making ready for his great odyssey through the sky
00:06:09.700 but it is significant because it is now not just his words in the letter in great thick unjoined letters
00:06:17.780 we are introduced to father Christmas's most important helper the great polar bear father
00:06:24.340 Christmas was in a great hurry told me to put in one of his magic wishing crackers as you pull wish
00:06:31.540 and see if it doesn't come true excuse thick writing I have a fat paw I help father Christmas
00:06:38.820 with his packing I live with him I am the great polar bear Michael receives his first personal letter
00:06:47.460 from father Christmas in the same year and tucked into it as some magic wishing crackers so that he
00:06:53.620 may get the presents he hopes for next year 1925 is an exceedingly busy year for father Christmas and
00:07:00.500 his friends this latest letter is addressed from cliff house top of the world near the north pole
00:07:07.620 Christmas 1925 detailed within is the first great flair of Tolkien's creativity forging father
00:07:16.420 Christmas's time up in the north into an ongoing narrative my dear boys I am dreadfully busy this
00:07:23.220 year it makes my hand more shaky than ever when I think of it and not very rich in fact awful things
00:07:31.140 have been happening and some of the presents have got spoiled and I haven't got north polar bear to help
00:07:37.620 me and I have had to move house just before Christmas so you can imagine what a state everything is in
00:07:45.300 and you will see why I have a new address and why I can only write one letter between you both
00:07:51.940 it all happened like this one very windy day last November my hood blew off and went and stuck on the
00:08:00.100 top of the north pole I told him not to but the north polar bear climbed up to the thin top to get it down
00:08:07.300 and he did the pole broke in the middle and fell on the roof of my house and the north polar bear fell
00:08:15.220 through the hole it made into the dining room with my hood over his nose and all the snow fell off the
00:08:21.940 roof into the house and melted and put out all the fires and ran down into the cellars where I was
00:08:29.620 collecting this year's presents and the north polar bear's leg got broken he is well again now but I
00:08:37.060 was so cross with him that he says he won't try to help me again I expect his temper is hurt and will
00:08:44.340 be mended by next Christmas I send you a picture of the accident and of my new house on the cliffs above
00:08:51.620 the north pole with beautiful cellars in the cliffs if John can't read my old shaky writing
00:08:59.220 1925 years old he must get his father too when is Michael going to learn to read and write his own
00:09:08.020 letters to me lots of love to you both and Christopher whose name is rather like mine
00:09:14.100 that's all goodbye father Christmas extracts from the year of 1926 evidence a year of particular havoc
00:09:22.820 as a north polar bear in his infinite curiosity turned on the Rory Borealis fireworks recounting the
00:09:31.380 chaos to Tolkien's sons father Christmas reflects it was the biggest bang in the world and the most
00:09:37.940 monstrous firework there ever has been it turned the north pole black and shook all the stars out of
00:09:46.740 place broke the moon into four and the man in it fell into my back garden he ate quite a lot of my
00:09:55.140 Christmas chocolates before he said he felt better and climbed back to mend it and get the stars tidy
00:10:02.660 imagine two years worth of northern lights thrust into the arctic firmament such glorious splendor
00:10:11.460 writing in his own defense the north polar bear merely says it was a lovely firework in 1927 father
00:10:20.340 Christmas wistfully reflects on the fact that John did not write to him this year but otherwise things are
00:10:27.220 well at the north pole polar bear and the snowman have been enjoying a snowball fight and father
00:10:32.980 Christmas was recently visited by the man in the moon who naturally gets quite lonely up there the
00:10:39.540 two friends tucked into some splendid plum pudding it is a time of mirth and things continue in this way for
00:10:46.980 several years after the north polar bear has been pen palling for some years he shares some of his culture with
00:10:53.780 the tolkien children he explains that the reason why his letters are always laced with spelling mistakes
00:11:00.660 is because english is not his first language giving tolkien an opportunity to of course infuse his own
00:11:07.700 love of languages into his world building father Christmas says my english spelling is not good i can't
00:11:15.620 help it we don't speak english up here only arctic which you don't know we also make our letters
00:11:23.540 different i have made mine like arctic letters for you to see we always write a vertical arrow for t
00:11:31.220 and v for u this is some arctic language which means goodbye till i see you next and i hope it will be
00:11:39.700 soon my real name is cara but i don't tell most people hints are dropped across several letters
00:11:52.340 that the children will be gifted the presents they've wished for and been so good to deserve
00:11:57.140 over the years paints model train sets teddy bears what's more father Christmas informs the children that
00:12:04.660 the polar bear's nephews are visiting during the winter of 1931 their names are paksu and valkatuka
00:12:12.740 youthful cubs which appear to bring added stress to father christmas's labors ink in the fire and
00:12:19.220 presents in their bellies they certainly take after their uncle grimmer tidings reach the children on
00:12:25.220 november the 30th 1932 polar bear has gone missing an explanation arrives from father christmas several
00:12:33.140 weeks later goblins father christmas is visited by old mr cave brown cave one of the last few cave bears
00:12:42.100 that dwell in the arctic the ancient noble beast leads father christmas to a series of tunnels that polar
00:12:49.940 bear had fallen into these tunnels are inhabited by goblins and father christmas recounts a law of
00:12:57.380 their race to the children goblins are to us very much as rats are to you only worse because they are
00:13:04.180 very clever and only better because they are in these parts very few long ago we had great trouble with
00:13:11.700 them that was about 1453 and we got the help of the gnomes who were their greatest enemies and cleared them
00:13:19.300 out anyway there was poor old polar bear lost in the dark all among them and all alone until he met
00:13:26.980 mr cave brown cave who lives there the goblins skulk off deeper into the earth at father christmas's
00:13:33.540 approach and polar bear is saved malnourished but otherwise grateful for being rescued the walls also
00:13:41.380 bear crude paintings of long-existent animals such as mammoths and dragons just as dragons covet hoarded
00:13:50.100 gold goblins apparently love mechanical toys so when father christmas returns with polar bear to their
00:13:57.300 home they are aghast to see that all the hornby train sets have been pillaged from their stores but
00:14:03.700 the day is not lost and father christmas calls upon his old alliance with the red gnomes of norway
00:14:10.580 after polar bear smokes the goblins out of their hole the gnomes pursue them with so many problems to
00:14:17.220 overcome there is a terrible rush to be ready for christmas day but with the assistance from the
00:14:23.140 gnome ladies things get back on track and christmas of 1932 is saved if you enjoyed this piece of
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