Now wake little people dressed in white,
Old Father Christmas came last night;
He crammed your stocking – and, children, look!
He brought you a coloured picture book.
from Old Father Christmas by Lizzie Mack and Robert Ellice Mack, published in London by Ernest Nister, 1889.
I have been looking forward to posting this picture all the way through Advent. I know it is unashamedly sentimental, but I love the rich red of Father Christmas’ robes, the toys tumbling from his sack, and especially the radiant light spilling from the lantern across the floor. I like the nice touch that Father Christmas is holding the coloured picture book Old Father Christmas, in which he himself appears in this glowing illustration.
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