Babar and Father Christmas

Babar the elephant is shown in three scenes on Christmas Eve. From top to bottom: Babar comforts Father Christmas who is weeping on a snowbank; Babar carries Father Christmas on his back along with a gigantic basket of toys; Babar himself is flying through the snowy night sky in the garb of Father Christmas and with the same toys on his back. This last image is very close to the one published on the cover of Babar and Father Christmas (Random House, 1940). In that image, Babar holds a stocking in his trunk rather than the teddy bear seen here and he flies over rolling hills, but here we see roofs and chimneys. The present drawings do not relate to the story of Babar and Father Christmas. They seem to have been produced for an earlier holiday special in a magazine.