A Letter from Santa Claus
Inspired by J.R.R. Tolkien
I was recently reminded that for several years, J.R.R. Tolkien wrote letters from Father Christmas to his children, filled with stories about polar bears and battles with goblins, all with illustrations included. I have not read these letters, but the idea sounded like something fun to do for my children. I have a three and a one-year-old, and we read this letter on Christmas Eve before bedtime. Perhaps this could be adapted into a children’s book in the future.
Dearest O— and E—,
It is almost Christmas, and the final preparations for my gift-giving journey are now underway. The sleigh has been packed with toys for every good boy and girl (including you two). The reindeer have been fed and are ready to go. Mrs. Claus even made me a special batch of gingerbread cookies to take with me. I do love a good cookie to snack on while I cross the globe.
It was not easy getting ready for Christmas this year. One of the toy-making machines stopped making toys. The elf in charge of the machine is named Bumbles. He tried everything to get the machine to work again. He turned it off and on again. He pressed all the buttons on it twice. Eventually, we had to open it up and look inside to see why it was not working. There was a piece of a cookie jammed in the gears! Bumbles was not being careful when he was working, and as he ate a cookie, a big piece came off and got stuck in the machine. Now, I love a good cookie, as I have said, but I told Bumbles to be more careful when he ate. He needs to be sure he does not leave crumbs everywhere when he eats.
We had a new special toy that we were going to deliver this year, but everything went wrong. The toy was a robot that could do anything you wanted!
The problem was that when we turned on the robot, it turned out to be a bad robot! It pushed elves over and took things that did not belong to it. It did not say, "please" or "thank you!" It broke toys and tore books apart. It made the elves very sad and then would laugh at them.
No one could turn it off. The robot just kept doing bad things! Thankfully, Bumbles the elf was not looking where he was going, and he tripped into the robot. He hit the power button and that turned the robot off. I decided I could not deliver the robot for Christmas this year. It still needs some work until it is a good robot.
I do hope you will enjoy your presents. Make sure to thank your mom and dad for taking care of you. O—, I hope you will continue to be a good big brother to E—. Remember to share your presents and take turns. Do not be like the bad robot. If you want something, be patient for your turn. I'm sure you will be on the nice list next year. Well, I've got to get going. I have a lot of presents to deliver.
