\^
i.
Old father Christmas
Berlie Doherty
& Maria
Tereja Melonl
-.0!^ ISBN
$12.95
8120 63S4 6 (
.in.utaSlSyS
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\^
i.
Old father Christmas
Berlie Doherty
& Maria
Tereja Melonl
-.0!^ ISBN
$12.95
8120 63S4 6 (
.in.utaSlSyS
father
01cl
(Christmas Based on
a story
Ewing
Juliana Horatia
and retold by Illustrated by
JVlany
Berlie
Maria
years ago,
by
Doherty
Teresa Meloni
on
a
winter
afternoon before Christmas, a
boy and
his sister
see a jolly old
them on were
as
little
were amazed to
man approaching
the lane. His hair and beard
white
as
cotton wool.
He
had a face like the sort of apple that keeps well in
\\'inter,
and
his coat
was old and brown. As he walked through the snow with
dog beside him, he looldng Christmas
The
his friendly
carried a fine tree.
children watched
him approach,
and they each had the same amazing at the very same moment: Old Father Christmas!"
thought "It's
[^msisB
^w
>^^ This
Book Belongs To
'ott^. ^yncTcA)
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q3 ^
^^
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Digitized by the Internet Archive in
2010
http://www.archive.org/details/oldfatherchristmOOdohe
Old father (Jhristmas
(1 -**i^
^^^v
>^.
United States published 1993 by
First edition for the
Barron's Educational Series, Inc.
First
published 1993 by HarperCollins Publisher Ltd,
77-85 Fulham
Place Road,
© Text ©
Illustrations
The author and/or
Hammersmith, London
W6
8JB.
1993 Berlie Dohert\'. 1993 Maria Teresa Meloni.
illustrator asserts the
identified as the author
and/or
moral right to be of this work.
illustrator
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may
be reproduced
in
any form, by
photostat, microfilm, xerography, or any other means, or
incorporated into any information retrieval system, electronic or mechanical, without the written permission
of the copyright owner. should be addressed
All inquiries
to:
Barron's Educational Series, Inc.
250 Wireless Boulevard Hauppauge, New York 11788 Library of Congress Catalog Card No. International Standard
92-43820
Book No. 0-8120-6354-6
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Doherty,
Berlie.
Old Father Christmas / based on
a story by luliana Horatia Euing and retold by Berlie Doherty Illustrated by Maria Teresa Meloni. cm. p. Summan': Godfather Garbel tells the story of how, when he was eight, he and his younger sister met an old man whom they took to be Father Christmas and subsequently had the best Christmas of their lives. ISBN 0-8120-6354-6 $12.95 [I.Christmas Fiction. 2. Santa ClaiK Fiction.] I. Ewing, lulia Horatia Gattv, 1841-1885. II. Meloni, Maria Teresa, ill. III. Tide. 1993 PZ7.D69476l [E]—dc20 92-43820 _ ,^ ;
:
—
—
^
'^^sr
PRINTED AND BOUND IN CHINA 3456
9934
987654321
CIP
AC
Old father Christmas
Based on a story by Juliana Horatia Ewing and retold by Berlie Doherty
Illustrated by
Maria ima^iSB
Teresa Meloni
y^'-.^
Old Father Christmas^ J^
±t
\'OLi
stories,
a
\cry old lady
who
likes to tell
then she might ha\e told you about
man who girl.
know
used to
her stories
tell
when
a
you
very old
she was a
little
His name might be Godfather Garbel. The story
she loved to hear most was the one about
Old Father
Christmas. Listen,
and you might
Garbel telling her the
the tn-elight.'
just
story.
Can you
backwards and forwards talking.'
You can hear
be able to hear Godfather
Can you
see
see
him winking
him shuffling
in his
square shoes
in
his feet as he's
the leather squeaking half a
room
away.
He's
telling her
about when he was
a little bo\', years
and years before you were born, years and years before the old lady was born. He's telling her about the best
Christmas he ever had.
•
Chapter One
•
When Godfather Garbel Boy
WAS A Little
vvan you imagine, he was
a little boy?
used to give
I
me
says, that
once upon
a time
I
used to have a godmother too, and she presents.
Fm
me
my
the present she have
for
going to
tell
you about
eighth birthday
Children didn't get the sort of presents then that they get now.
Grrmph! They did
We
not!
didn't get half the presents
you
get,
but we kept
them t\\'ice as long. And I think we lo\e them more than you love your presents. Grrmph! I think we did! I'll tell you what I got on my eighth birthday. My mother knitted me a blue scarf My little sister, Patt\', gave me a ball that she'd made out of rags and stuffed with bran and
My
father gave
gloves, so
I
me
a
bits
of cork.
broken whip and
a pair
could pretend to be the driver of 11
a
of old
coach
How
and horses!
loved them!
I
my
How
my whip
around the yard, cracldng
I
rode around and
and stretching out
fingers in those cracked old gloves!
And
Kitty gave
sea inside
I
it.
me
had the voice of the
a shell that
could hold
it
up to
my
and
ear
listen to
the sea roaring. I'd never seen the sea.
"Does
it
really
pressing the shell to
"Yes,
sound
my
like this.^""
I
asked Kitty,
ear.
does," she promised me. "It roars and
it
whispers, just like that."
made everyone
I
the old striped cat. the
window with
in the
house
listen to
saw Dick fi"om the
I
a pile
it,
even Puss,
village
of straw for stuffing
go past
Guy Fawkes
my hand so he would hear the sea, too. I gave him such a fright when I pushed it against his ear that he turned around and knocked me over with his pile of straw. "Now what did you go and do that for.>" he asked me. He was a bit upset because I'd made him jump. "I wanted you to hear the sea in my shell," I told with and
him.
I
raced out with the shell in
I
was
a bit upset,
too because he'd pushed
me
into
a puddle.
So Dick picked me up and rubbed me down and gave
me two and pocket, and
could
a half sticks I let
him
of molasses straight out of
listen to the shell,
listen to the sea roaring
in
it
his
and told him he every Saturday
afternoon from then on.
Now
weren't they wonderful presents.^ 12
And
still
I
whadn't had
a
my godmother. At last it coach, a parcel for me from my
present from
came, on the evening
godmother. It
was
herself,
a picture
book. She'd drawn
and colored them
rhyming
stories
in,
all
the pictures
and she'd written
about the characters. They were
Guy Fawkes. And the Man Moon. And Punch. And there was one about Old Christmas. And that's where my story begins. about people
little
like
all
in the
Father
^ Chapter Two
•
•
The Picture Book
JVly
Patty was six years old.
sister
We
loved each
book was almost as much hers as mine. We used to sit on a big stool by the tire with our arms round each other and the book resting
The
other very much.
on our
knees.
"My word," good
picture
as that,
Patty and
books were always
said Kitty. "If
wouldn't mind having one myseltV
I
loved
I
all
the pictures, but the one of
Father Christmas took our hearts by storm. seen anything
like
him, you
see.
time, but we'd never seen
him before,
with his long white hair and his beard
And
he was carrying a C'hristmas
Well, in
my
when
let
life I
me
tell
before!
was
eii2;ht
Old
We'd never
These days you can buy
models of him from any toy-shop
plaster
as
at
Christmas-
anci there like
he was,
cotton wool.
tree.
you, I'd ncxcr seen a Christmas tree
The
first
picture
vears old,
15
and
I
ever saw of one was
it
was carried bv Old
Father Christmas in
my godmother's
couldn't stop looking at
"What
picture book.
I
it.
are those things
on the
tree.^"
I
asked
my
father.
"Candles," he
said.
But there were other things that were even more exciting than candles.
"What
are those colored things .>"
I
asked him.
.^3^ '"^
"Toys," he I
looked
said.
at Patty.
hardly dared to ask
him
"Yes! They're taken off and given to the children
who
"Are they ever taken off)"
I
that.
stand around the tree." Patty and
held each other's hands tightly. "Isn't
I
Father Christmas kind!"
we both
said.
We gazed at the picture again. "How old is Old Father Christmas.^"
My
I
asked.
father laughed. "He's one thousand eight
hundred and
thirty years old," he told us.
"Because
how long it is since the very first Christmas day." And that was the very year we were in, when I was
that's
only eight years old.
"He old."
looks very old," whispered Patty. "Very, very
Well,
and
still
November went by, and December went by, we loved to look at the picture book. We looked
at the picture
of Old Father Christmas so often that he
We
we
knew him, and that if we ever saw him we w^ould recognize him right away. But has anybody ever really seen Old Father
was
like a friend.
felt as if
really
Christmas.^
Christmas week came, and Christmas Eve came.
mother and
My
father were mysteriously busy in the front
room, and Patty and I weren't allowed to go in. We went into the kitchen, but there \\ as no place of rest for us even there.
y^
"Go can't It
away," Kitty told
us.
"Fm
over the place,
all
you see?" looked
puddings were "There's no toes in the
mince
as if the cakes,
fire
all
pies,
and Christmas
over the place with her, too.
room
here for children sitting with their
reading books!" she told
us.
"The
cat's
quite enough, thank you!"
With that
that she gave Puss a
was meant to send her
from the
way
fireplace. It
was
little
kick with her slipper
flying like a football
a hint to her to get
away
out of the
into the Christmas frost, but Puss didn't take the
hint at
all.
happened she would always her warm place on the hearth.
Every time
creep softly back to
But we weren't
as
it
brave as Puss.
over our heads and went outside.
"Perhaps we'll see Dick,"
I said.
We
put Kitty's shawl
fnBut ^
Dick was busy helping
his father decorate the
church. In those days they used to
both ends of
all
make
little
the church benches and stick sprigs of
You had to be very careflil not your nose on them when you sat down. holly in them.
We
it
to
was
a
was anything interesting
long
field
sloped up to a
go
to scratch
ran across the yard and looked over the wall to
see if there
wall
holes at
hill
there.
where flowers grew
summer, and
was so windy that people used whooping cough.
that
there to cure their
in
Behind the
It
was nearly
today
it
as
good
looked strange,
as
and dreary
in the
I
stared back at the
the other end of great
jump
sky.
The white
fields
looked
dusk, but there was a holly hedge,
bright with berries, and a
me.
And "^
covered with snow and
all
standing off against the gray vast
going to the seaside.
tat
robin redbreast staring
robin. Pattys
Kitt^^'s sha\\'l,
that dragged
it
was peeping out of
and she suddenly gave
from our heads and
"Look!"
21
at
cried.
a
rtr^^^-^
/">%^
•
Chapter Three
•
Old Father Christmas
1 looked. An old man was coming along His hair and beard were
as
the lane.
white as cotton wool.
He
had
a face like the sort of apple that keeps well in winter; his
coat was old and bro\Mi. There were patches of snow
him, and he was carrying Patt\'
"It's
and
I
a little
fir
on
tree.
both had the same thought.
Old Father Christmas!" we breathed.
What we didn't know then was that he was an old man from the village who was taking the fir tree up to the Hall, to be made into a Christmas tree. He was a cheerful old fellow, and rather deaf He made up for this by nodding
his
head
all
the time and smiling and saying,
"Aye, aye, to be sure!" every
As he passed
up
in
us he
now and
saw us looking
such a friendh' way that
I \\'as
again. at
him and smiled
bra\'e
enough to
"Hello, Father Christmas!" to him.
"Same
to you!" he said, in a high-pitched voice.
say,
"Soyou ARE Father Christmas!"
Happy New
"xA.nd a
puzzled
me
that Patt}'
"So
a bit,
I
must
Year!" was his reply, which say.
But he smiled so cheerfully
went on, "You're very
I
be. Miss, so
^^ / "H^
said Patty.
I
old, aren't you?"
nodded Old Father
be,"
Christmas.
"My
hundred and
tather says you're eighteen
years old,"
I
thirty
whispered.
"Aye, aye, to be sure," said Old Father Christmas.
"I'm very old." "Very, very old!"
I
said to myself. x\nd then
him, "You're the oldest
man
in the
I
said to
world you know,"
thought of that.
case he hadn't
"Aye, aye," said Father Christmas, and nodded a
but he didn't
really
seem to think anything of
he held up the tree and
bit
is, little
in
said,
it.
lot,
After a
"D'you know what
this
Miss.>"
"A Christmas tree," said Patt\^ And the old man smiled and nodded. I
leaned over the wall and shouted, "But there aren't
any candles!"
"By-and-by," said Father Christmas, nodding away again.
"When
it's
dark they'll
all
be
lit
up. That'll be a
fine sight!"
"There'll be toys too, \\'on't there?" screamed Patt^^
Father Christmas nodded his head.
He I
licked his
could
"And
sweeties!"
lips.
feel Patt\'
trembling beside me, and
my own
e
heart was beating
was
this
—
fast.
What
\\'e
were so eager to know
Father Christmas bringing the tree to us?
^was
But that was what we daren't ask him. WTiat
At
if
he wasn't!
he put the tree over his shoulders again and
last
move
started to
away, and
I
shouted out
in despair,
"Oh,
you're not going, are you.-"
"I'm coming back soon," he
"How
said.
soon.'" Patt\' shouted.
"About four o'clock," said the old man, smiling. "I'm only going up yonder." And off he went, nodding and chuckling, down the snowy lane, and behind him there crept a litde brown and white
spaniel, looking very dirt\' in the snow.
Up yonder! What was
that supposed to mean.' Father Christmas
had pointed vaguely upwards, but
anwhere, up
as
woods, or up
could have been anywhere.
"Where's up yonder.'" asked
was
could have meant
in the field, or in the squire's
in the sky even. It
I
it
puzzled
Squire's woods,"
Patt\^
as she was. "I I
told her.
think
it
must be
"Maybe Old Father
Christmas has got a cave up there,
like
Aladdin's cave
probably, and that's where he gets the candles and
all
the
pretty things for the tree." "I
wonder
if
he's got
in
something for us!"
said Patty.
# So
\\"c
started to walk Kick
home,
tliil
of thoughts of
the wonderful cave where Father Christmas decorated his
Christmas
trees.
wonder why there's no pictiure of Father Christmas's dog in the book:'' "Perhaps it's a new dog that he's got to guard his ^Pattv/'
I
said, "I
cave,*' said Patt\". •
27.
iK^^^len
went indoors we opened the'picture book
\\e
again and looked at
\\indow, but there
it
w as
At that moment
dim light from the passage no dog there.
in the
my
father passed
me and
patted
my
head.
"Fm
not sure,"
I
said to him,
"but
I
think Father
Christmas might be going to bring us a Christmas tree tonight.''
"\\Tio's
been
gone before
I
telling
you
that.-"
he
said,
but he had
had the chance to explain that wc had seen
Father Christmas himself, and had had his
word
for
it
would come back at four o'clock, and that the candles on the tree would be lit as soon as it wzs dark. We hung about outside the rooms till four o'clock
that he
came.
had
We
sat
on
the stairs and watched the big clock.
just learned to tell the time,
dizz\'
by looking up
hand on
its slo\\"
ever}'
but
Patt\'
made
I
herself
other second to watch the big
wiy towards the
our noses into the kitchen
figure four.
now and
We
put
then to smell the
warm. Sometimes we hung
cakes baking and to get
around the parlor door. "'Stop peepingl"
our mother called to
us.
But what did we care what she was doing in the parlor.' Hadn't we seen Old Father Christmas himself, and weren't we expecting him back again at any minute! x\t last the church clock struck. The sounds boomed and
heavily through the frost,
four of them.
Then our own •
28
.
thought there were ^ clock started choking and^ Patt\'
whirring Iti
and
quite clearly
at last
it
— one!
Kitty's cloak again
struck,
and we counted the notes
two! three! four!
and
stole
We
ran to get
We
out into the backyard.
ran up to our old place, and peeped, but couldn't see anything.
"We'd
up onto the wall," I said. Patty struggled up, rubbing her bare Icnees on the cold stones and getting snow up her sleeves. I was just beginning to better get
scramble after her
when something
warm came suddenly and
I
against the bare calves of
yelled with fright.
knees,
my
cold and something
I
elbows, and
my
chin, and the
hadn't gone up Patty's sleeves went
Then the
I
found that the cold thing was
warm "It's
my
legs
tumbled down and bruised
snow
down my
my
that
neck.
a dog's nose,
and
thing was his tongue.
Father Christmas's dog, and he's Ucking your
legs," said Patty.
It really
was that
brown and white
dirt)- little
and he kept on and on licking and making funny
something to didn't
me
know what
hurting, and
I
was
little
if
me and jumping on me,
noises as
only
to do,
spaniel,
if
he were tr\dng to say
could speak his language.
I I
can
tell
a bit frightened
you.
My
legs
were
of the dog, and Patty
was very frightened of sitting on the wall without me.
"You won't
tall.
Hold on,"
And, "Go away!"
I
I
said to her.
said to the
31
I
jumping dog.
"Humpty Dumpty fell off a "Bowwow!" said the dog.
wall," said Patty.
dog tried to pull me down; but when my little sister was on her feet I was quite glad to see that he was more interested in her than he was in me. He jumped up and licked her a few times, and then he turned around and ran away "He's gone!" I said. "Thank goodness for that." I
pulled Patty down, and the
But there he was, back again, crouching 32
at Patty's
feet
and glaring
muddy
color as his ears.
Now
Patty was very fond of animals, and
dog looked
at
when
the
her she looked at the dog, and then she
me, "He wants us to go with him."
said to
He
her with eyes that were the same
at
understood that
from us and ran off ran after him.
I
had
all
right.
as fast as
a faint
He
sprang up and away
he could, and
hope
at the
Patt\'
and
I
back of my mind.
"Perhaps Father Christmas has sent him to fetch us," I
thought.
And only a
sure enough, the little
way.
lying in the ditch,
He
dog
us
up the
lane.
But
stoppeci by something that was
and once more we
breath, "It^s
leci
Old Father Christmas."
said in the
same
•
Chapter Four
•
The Christmas Tree
1
atty
began to
cry.
"I think he's dead," she sobbed.
"He and
is
very old,"
thirt)^ It
whispered. "Eighteen hundred
I
wouldn't surprise me,
Patty.
But
I'll
go and
fetch help."
My
came out
father and Kitty
right away.
thought that the old man had slipped on the
way down from for a bit. Kitty
the Hall, and had
was
him between them
as
ice
They on
his
knocked himself out
strong as any man; they carried
into the kitchen.
He soon came
around. Kitty was marvelous. She didn't complain once that her
work had been
man's chair close to the
interrupted. She pulled the old fire,
and she even
let his little
dog go
right
up to the hearth. As soon
she lay
down
with her back snuggled up so close to the
spaniel's that Kitty
she wanted to
would have
e;et rid
of her. .
35
.
to kick
as
Puss saw
this,
them both out
if
^
If Patty
and
hadn't been so worried about the tree,
I
we would have thought
it
was
wonderful
a
treat to
sit
in
Old Father Christmas. And what a tea it was! Usually we had bread and molasses, but tonight we had all the bits and pieces of cakes and the kitchen having tea with
had gone wrong
biscuits that
Kitty called them, that
And
oven, and the
of pastry and the "tasters and wasters,"
leftover bits
to test that
in the
it
had only been put into the oven
was hot enough for the
there
we
sat,
as
real thing.
helping Old Father Christmas to
tea and cake and wondering in our hearts what could
have happened to the
him about
it.
It
tree.
We
just didn't dare to ask
wasn't until we'd had three cups of tea
each, with tasters and wasters every time, that Pattv said
very gently, "It's quite
dark now."
And
then she heaved a deep
sigh. I
couldn't stop myself.
I
leaned towards Father
Christmas and shouted, "I suppose the candles are the tree
all
on
now?"
"Just about," said Father Christmas.
"And
the presents too.>"
saici Patty.
"Aye, aye, to be sure," said Father Christmas, with his
wonderful smile. I
was trying to think what
else
I
he pushed his cup towards Patty saying, insist.
Miss,
And
I'll
Kitty,
when "Since you
dared ask him
have another cup."
swooping on us from the oven, 36
cried;XL
*35*a^sr
--
"Make yourself f"JVi
at
home,
There's more where these
Sir!
came from. Stretch your arm
them cakes around." So Patty did as she was
out, Miss Patty, and
hand
and handed Old Father
told
Christmas the plate of cakes, and then she picked up the teapot and, holding the
with the other, I
can
tell
But
filled
up
with one hand and pouring
lid
Our
his cup.
hearts were heavy,
you.
at last
We
he was finished.
all
stood up to say
grace after meals, but he stayed with his eyes shut tightly
long
after I'd said
hadn't heard a
down
again,
door. This
is
Amen — I
word of
my
think he was so deaf that he
And
it.
father put his
what he
just as
he was sitting
head around the Idtchen
said:
"Old Father Christmas has sent
a tree to
the
children." Patt)^
old
man
and
I
shouted with joy and danced around the
saying,
you!" which
I
"Oh, how
lovely!
Oh, how kind of
think must have puzzled him, but he only
smiled and nodded.
"Come along," my father said. "Come Come on, Kitty. And Reuben." And he went into the parlor, and we him.
And
My
on, children.
all
followed
M
j^
there was the tree,
godmother's picture of
a
Christmas tree was very
and the flames of the candles looked so real painted in red and yellow that I always wondered why X pretty;
.
38
.
^> they didn't shine in the dark. But the pieture was
nowhere near
We had
wonderful
as
as the real thing.
been sitting almost
in the
dark in the
kitchen, because Kitty always said that firelight was
good enough to burn at mealtimes. And then the parlor door was thrown open, and the tree with all its flickering candles burst into view. The blaze was dazzling. It threw such a glory of light around the
little
and around the colored hanging bags of lemon
gifts,
drops and pink rose drops, and licorice drops, that shall
I
never forget the sight of it.
We
all
got something, and Patty and
that everything
clothes and
had come from Old Father Christmas's
My
hidden cave.
were quite sure
I
father
came
in
with a bundle of old
handed them to him.
"Here you
are,
Reuben.
We
can't forget you, can
we.>"
And
even
when
the old
shuftled out into the
arm, we ^ "^^ We were
still
man
smiled and nodded and
snow with
his present
under
his
believed he had given us the tree. all
very happy, even Kitty, though she kept
her sleeves rolled up and didn't quite
like to
enjoying herself. Busy people are often
be seen
like that.
She
went back to her oven before the Christmas tree lights were put out; even before the angel on the top had been taken down and given to her present
at
once.
She often showed
it
It
was
Patty.
a little
She locked away
wooden workbox.
off afterwards, but she kept 40
it
wrapped died.
in the
Our
same
of
bit
presents didn't
tissue
last
paper
so long,
till
the day she
you can be sure of
that!
The old man died about a \\'eek later. His little dog came to live with us. I suppose he remembered how
warm our
kitchen was. Patt\^ was his special friend, but
he seemed very fond of all of us. Puss seemed to
like
him
too.
And w hen we took him the fields in summertime, lead us to the cave
I
for walks,
rambling around
always hoped that he uould
where Christmas
tree candles
and
presents are hidden. But he never did.
Our mother and man. They
called
him "Old Reuben."
But to Patty and
and he always
father often talked about the old
will be.
me
he was Old Father Christmas,
"5f For Liz Cash dan
With thanks
to
Gin a
Pollinjjcr
BD In
Memory
of John Brain
For the families
and Zeeman Andfo r my o w n fa m ily Fattorini
MTM
Julia XA Horatia Ewixg Juliana Horatia Ewing
\\'as
born
mother, Margaret
Gatt)',
was
in Ecclcs-
cry early age, Juliana
\
Her
a successtiil children's
writer and had a great influence a
1841
Yorkshire, the second of nine children.
ticlci,
From
in
on her daughter's
Ewing displayed
lite.
a \i\id
imagination and an aptitude for storytelling, which her mc^ther actixelv encouraged.
She began her writing career well before her marriage to Alexander
numerous
Ewing
in
1867 when she was 26. Her
children's stories appeared in periodicals
before being published in
book form. She continued
to write
throughout her adult
1885
the age of 44.
Like
at
life
until her
many of her contemporaries,
about
large,
happy
families.
death
in
she chose to write
But Mrs Ewing w ent
bevond the conxentions of the dav bv conve\'ing family affection
and happy moments of childhood without
moralizing. Old Father ChrisUnas'is an ideal example of
her unique
abilit)'
to re\eal the intense, yet simple, joy
that Christmas brinirs for children.
About The Author Berlie
Doherty
is
an English poet,
playwright, novelist, and author of children's bot)ks. She also conducts writers''
and
won
workshops
adults.
To
for
both children
date she has twice
the prestigious Carnegie
Medal, which
is
presented for an
outstanding children's book. Old Father Christmas
\s
her
first
book
for
Barron's.
About The Illustrator Maria Teresa Meloni was born in small town near Lucca, on Italy's Tuscany
She was educated
coast.
a
in
Florence, Rome, and Genoa, and received her art training in Milan.
She
now
lives
and works
in
England.
Old Father Christmas is Maria's first picture book, and for her it confirms the link between the
she
knows and
loves.
two
cultures
Two young
children get their
first
glimpse of
Father Christmas. Believing that they have
met him
in real life, their actual experience
becomes even
better
—the happiest Christmas
they have ever had.
:/f^
^
m Ems^ss
ISBN 0-8120-6354-6
9 "780812"063547'>