Letters from Father Christmas is my favorite book by J.R.R. Tolkien. Tolkien wrote and illustrated these stories in the form of letters for his children from Father Christmas almost every year from the early 1920's into the 1940's. The North Polar Bear, Father Christmas's assistant, is the most compelling character of the letters, as he inevitably sets off chain-reactions due to his clumsiness. While Polar Bear is more bumbling than mischievous, he is definitely a prototype for Brad the Gorilla.
My mother intended to follow Tolkien's example by writing St. Nicholas letters for us, but due to time and energy constraints, wrote only three letters over the course of our childhood. The one I remember best was around the time Ulric wanted a fire-hat with a siren akin to the one his best friend had. St. Nicholas had full intentions of delivering one, but when one of the elves tried it on, Polar Bear thought there was a real fire and turned on all the sprinklers and hoses. After Polar Bear found out it was a false alarm, he felt bad, as many of the presents were ruined. Somehow, the firehat got so water-logged that the siren stopped working. Ulric was a bit disappointed that his plastic red fire-hat was of the quiet sort, but he made up for it by supplying siren noises of his own.This post has been updated since its original publication.
