Small Fish, Big Pond

The Art of Manliness had a good post of 11 things to do to get into the Christmas Spirit. One of the suggestions is to read a good Christmas book, that reminded me of one of my favorite Christmas books The Father Christmas Letters

The Father Christmas Letters is a compilation of letters that JRR Tolkien of “Lord of the Rings” fame wrote to his kids. They’re from the perspective of Father Christmas at the north pole and his adventures in getting prepared for Christmas. This being Tolkien this isn’t your usual tired story about snowmen and dentist; usually the North Pole bear was causing mischief, setting off fireworks or accidentally soaking all the toys by flooding the house while in the bath. Father Christmas also discovers mysterious writings in nearby caves that happen to come from underground goblins.

The letters are illustrated by Tolkien himself with the flair of his other writings, providing translations of the different languages for creatures of the north pole, writing which is wavy because of the written in the cold (shivering), and for how simple they are they convey the cold desolate beauty of being of a frozen winter wonderland.

No matter what age you are it’s definitely worth checking out a copy of the book.