This episode of Christmas Past discusses Santa Claus and Father Christmas, but not in a way that younger listeners could appreciate.

Grownups, please enjoy this one on your own. Thanks.

On Christmas morning in 1923, a child in England named John awoke to find a handwritten letter accompanying all of the Christmas gifts

that had magically arrived as he slept the night before.

Written in a shaky scrawl of black and red ink and folded into a decorated envelope

apparently postmarked from the North Pole, the letter reads,

My dear John, it is very cold today and my hand is very shaky.

I am nineteen hundred and twenty-four.

Ah, no, twenty-seven years old on Christmas Day.

Lots older than your great-grandfather, so I can't stop the pen wobbling,

but I hear that you're getting so good at reading that I expect you

will be able to read my letter.

I send you lots of love, and lots for Michael, too, and lots bricks too, which are called

that because there are lots more for you to have next year if you will let me know in good

time.

I think they are prettier and stronger and tidier than picker bricks, so I hope you will like them.

Now I must go. It is a lovely fine night and I have got hundreds of miles to go before morning.

There is such a lot to do. A cold kiss from Father Nicholas Christmas.

Of course, the letter wasn't actually from the North Pole or Father Christmas. It was from John's

father, John Sr. For more than 20 years, John Sr. would write such letters from Father Christmas

throughout the childhoods of his four children. They'd describe all kinds of details For more than 20 years, John Sr. would write such letters from Father Christmas throughout

the childhoods of his four children. They'd describe all kinds of details about Father Christmas,

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