What was the name of J.R.R. Tolkien’s 1976 posthumously published collection of letters from Father Christmas?

The Father Christmas Letters is J.R.R. Tolkien’s 1976 posthumously published collection of letters from Father Christmas.

Tolkien wrote the letters for his children between 1920 and 1942. Each Christmas, the children received a letter presented as if it came from Father Christmas, often accompanied by drawings or other details from the imagined North Pole.

The letters developed recurring characters, including the North Polar Bear, and created an extended family mythology separate from Middle-earth. They show Tolkien combining storytelling, invented languages, maps, handwriting, and illustration in a personal family tradition.

The book was edited and published after Tolkien’s death. It is not a collection of correspondence about Christmas written to literary collaborators; it preserves the imaginative letters he created specifically for his children.