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 Fantasy: December 13, 2017 Issue [#8647] |
  Fantasy This week: Tales of Christmas Edited by: eyestar~*   More Newsletters By This Editor   1. About this Newsletter 2. A Word from our Sponsor 3. Letter from the Editor 4. Editor's Picks 5. A Word from Writing.Com 6. Ask & Answer 7. Removal instructions 
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We all know Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol and DR. Seuss' The Grinch who stole Christmas! C.S.Lewis' tale "The Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe" is one of my favourite which begins in the winter. "Always winter, but never Christmas!" Father Christmas showing up is a sign of light and love returning. But who else? Let's look! You may know more than I so be prepared to comment! 
"I will honour Christmas in my heart and keep it all the year." C. Dickens
"At Christmas I no more desire a rose, than wish snow in May's new-fangled shows." ~Shakespeare
My search took me on a journey to find Christmas tales or stories with Christmas themes written by fantasy authors! And why not? Fantasy folks love myths, legends, folklore, er... elves! 
I read that Christmas itself is not an overly favoured theme and Shakespeare only mentions it 3 times in his works. 
I was routing through my stash and found my copy of JRR Tolkien's Letters to Father Christmas, written over a 14 year period! Yes indeed, he wrote these letters with illustrations to his sons from 1920 til 1942 telling the tales of Father Christmas, polar bears and even fighting goblins! What is is good fantasy without the bad guys! Every year a stamped letter would show up on Christmas post. It was published in 1999, after his death. 
I also discovered that Frank L. Baum, the creator of The Wizard of OZ wrote a whimsical book called the The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus in 1902. 
Terry Pratchard, famous for Discworld wrote Hogfather where the Hogfather who delivers present goes missing, and a set of funny short stories of wacky Christmases in Father Christmas's Fake Beard.
There are quite a few short stories with the theme. You can even read them free on line. Who knew?
You can even read about Christmas Ninjas 
in The Christmas Mummy by Heather Shaw and Tim Pratt
Vylkar Kattin wrote a post apocolyptic futuristic tale The Christmas Wedding.
"The Shannara Series" author Terry Brooks uses a Christmas wish book to engage his main character and have him buy a kingdom.
Several authors including one of my favourites Mercedes Lackey write unsual stories in A Cosmic Christmas! Christmas ghosts or Christmas on a space station. I guess there is no end to the imagination of a fantasy or sci fi writer!
Another cool one I read is Wolf Christmas by David Pinkwater! Imagine Christmas from a wolf's point of view! 
Feel free to check them out for yourself: 
I will leave you with two questions:
Be safe and best wishes for peace and joy of the season and beyond into the new year! 
Whoah! Way back in May I did my first fantasy newsletter and I thank these readers for their comments. 
Thank you so much. 