父亲的圣诞节来信 (1976)

《圣诞老爸的来信》（英语：The Father Christmas Letters）是英国作家J·R·R·托尔金创作的绘本及儿童文学作品，内容来自于托尔金从1920至1942年间用圣诞老人口吻写给子女的信件。该书的首版出版于1976年9月2日，由克里斯托夫·托尔金的第二任妻子贝莉·托尔金编辑整理。

故事

《圣诞老爸的来信》中，圣诞老人用第一人称向托尔金的孩子描述他在北极所遇上的各种趣事，包括北极熊助手调皮捣蛋的行径，最吓人的烟火表演“北极光”，以及与地底洞穴哥布林之间的战斗等等。

在1939年的信件中，圣诞老人提到了第二次世界大战。也因此后来故事中与哥布林战斗的情节常被解释作对德国的隐喻。

创作

J·R·R·托尔金从1920年圣诞节起就开始为孩子们撰写圣诞老人的书信，当时候其长子约翰只有三岁而已，如此持续二十多年未有间断。托尔金还亲手绘制书信中的插图、信封上的“北极邮票”及北极邮戳。

随着子女们日渐长大，书信的收信人也越来越少，到1938年，收信人只剩下时年九岁的小女儿普瑞西拉。1943年，托尔金最后一次以圣诞老人名义给普瑞西拉写信，信上署名“热爱你的老友，圣诞老人”。

比利时语言学家达德尼认为：“这些可爱的信是《霍比特人》的来源”。

出版

《圣诞老爸的来信》于1976年9月2日先由乔治·艾伦与昂温出版社出版，同年10月19日再由美国的霍顿·米夫林出版社出版。

在1999年推出的再版中，增加了一些初版时并没有的信件和插图，且重新命名了圣诞老人来信的名称。

翻译

2015年1月，上海人民出版社出版了《圣诞老爸的来信》的中文译本，内容由演员黄磊的女儿黄多多及其闺蜜“仔仔”一同翻译，黄磊则与赖声川分别担任其中、英文指导。

Letters from Father Christmas, formerly known as The Father Christmas Letters, are a collection of letters written and illustrated by J. R. R. Tolkien between 1920 and 1943 for his children, from Father Christmas. They were released posthumously by the Tolkien estate on 2 September 1976, the 3rd anniversary of Tolkien's death. They were edited by Baillie Tolkien, second wife of his youngest son, Christopher. The book was warmly received by critics, and it has been suggested that elements of the stories inspired parts of Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings.

Plot

The stories are told in the format of a series of letters, told either from the point of view of Father Christmas or his elvish secretary. They document the adventures and misadventures of Father Christmas and his helpers, including the North Polar Bear and his two sidekick cubs, Paksu and Valkotukka. The stories include descriptions of the massive fireworks that create the northern lights and how Polar Bear manages to get into trouble on more than one occasion.

The 1939 letter has Father Christmas making reference to the Second World War, while some of the later letters feature Father Christmas' battles against goblins, which were subsequently interpreted as being a reflection of Tolkien's views on the German menace.

Publication

The letters themselves were written over a period of over 20 years to entertain Tolkien's children each Christmas. Starting in 1920 when Tolkien's oldest son was aged three, each Christmas Tolkien would write a letter from Father Christmas about his travels and adventures. Each letter was delivered in an envelope, including North Pole stamps and postage marks as designed by Tolkien.

Prior to publication, an exhibition of Tolkien's drawings was held at the Ashmolean Museum. These included works from The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and the Letters from Father Christmas. The first edition was published by Allen and Unwin on 2 September 1976 under the name The Father Christmas Letters, three years after Tolkien's death. The Houghton Mifflin edition was released later that year on 19 October. It was the third work by Tolkien to be released posthumously, after a collection of poems and the "Guide to the Names in The Lord of the Rings". Edited by Baillie Tolkien, the second wife of Christopher Tolkien, it includes illustrations by Tolkien for nearly all the letters; however, it omitted several letters and drawings.

When the book was republished in 1999, it was retitled Letters from Father Christmas and several letters and drawings not contained in the original edition were added. One edition in 1995 featured the letters and drawings contained in individual envelopes to be read in the manner they were originally conceived to be.

Reception

The reception to the first two works published posthumously had been warm, which was subsequently thought to be due to Tolkien's recent death. The response to the Letters from Father Christmas was much more measured and balanced. Jessica Kemball-Cook suggested in her book Twentieth Century Children's Writers that it would become known as a classic of children's literature, while Nancy Willard for The New York Times Book Review also received the book positively, saying "Father Christmas lives. And never more merrily than in these pages." In 2002, an article in The Independent on Sunday described the work as rivalling "The Lord of the Rings for sheer imaginative joy". In 2023, an extract from one of the Letters from Father Christmas was read out by actor Jim Broadbent at the televised 'Together at Christmas' carol service in Westminster Abbey on Friday 8 December, broadcast to the nation on Christmas Eve that year.