In related news, The New York Times has a lovely slideshow of J.R.R. Tolkien's "Letters from Father Christmas" illustrations. Like all of Tolkien's art, these pictures are lovely, and well worth a look.
One year for the holidays, H.P. Lovecraft wrote a "horrible message of gladness" for his friends, a parody of his own "weird fiction" as well as Edgar Allan Poe's. The result was "The Brumalian Wish," my quote of the day:
From the damnable shadows of madness,
From the corpse-ridden hollow of Weir,
Comes a horrible message of gladness,
And a ghost-guided poem of cheer -
And a gloom-spouting pupil of Poe sends the pleasantest wish of the year!
May the ghouls of the neighboring regions,
And the curse'd necrophagous things,
Lay aside their dark habits in legions,
For the bliss that Brumalia brings -
And may Druids innum'rable bless thee, as they dance on the moor's fairy-rings!
So, Galba, may pleasures attend thee
Thro' all thy bright glorious days;
May the world and the mighty commend thee,
And the cosmos resound with thy praise -
And may all future ages be brilliant with the light of thine intellect's rays!
"The Brumalian Wish," by H.P. Lovecraft (writing as "Edward John Ambrose Bierce Theobald")
