'Tis the Season - Christmas Stories From Around the World

“Love is what's in the room with you at Christmas if you stop opening presents and listen.”
~ Author unknown, attributed to a 7-year-old named Bobby

The Christmas holiday is just around the corner and it's time to add some fun, facts and mirth to your day, and stories to your repertoire!

A bit of background on the man in the red suit; he is known by a variety of names around the world. Whether you call him Saint Nicholas, Santa Claus or Sinterklaas, may you feel the magic he brings to the season and surrounded by those you love.

• In Holland, Santa Claus is known as Sinterklaas tradition.
• In Spain, every year Santa Claus comes by steamboat.
• In the United States Santa Claus is described as a plump, cheerful, white-bearded man wearing a red coat with white collar and cuffs, red trousers and white-cuffed, and a black leather belt and boots (picture of himself rarely has a beard with no mustache)
• Santa Claus as we know him in the United States and Canada became popular in the 19^th century.
• In the UK and Europe, he is usually called Father Christmas.
• The real Santa Claus, also known as St. Nicholas, was born in Turkey and was buried in the city of Bari, Southern Italy.
• It is said he was born at Patara in Lycia, a province of Asia Minor and was known for his extraordinary devoutness, passion and many astonishing miracles. He died at Myra, and was buried in his cathedral.
  The above details came from the following website:
  http://www.legendsbreakfast.com/the-history-of-santa-claus-and-christmas (This site is no longer in service.)

STORIES

A Gift from St. Nicholas – United States
http://americanfolklore.net/folklore/2010/08/a_gift_from_saint_nicholas.html

A Small Fish Story – Ireland
http://www.stnicholascenter.org/pages/small-fish-story/

The Baker’s Dozen – United States

http://www.aaronshep.com/storytelling/GOS07.html

The Cat of the Dovrefell - Norway

https://www.worldoftales.com/European_folktales/Norwegian_folktale_14.html#gsc.tab=0

The Children’s Book of Christmas Stories – Thirty-five stories, published in 1913 by Elizabeth Harrison. “In this book you'll find stories by such well known authors as Charles Dickens and Hans Christian Anderson. You'll also find stories by author's you've never heard of, but relax and know that every story represented here has been read and enjoyed by thousands of children.”
https://archive.org/stream/thechildrensbook05061gut/cbcst10.txt

Christmas in Legend and Story – Public domain book published in 1915 by Elva Sophronia Smith containing forty stories of the season.
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/11014

The Christmas Cuckoo - Ireland
https://mythologystories.wordpress.com/2013/12/10/the-christmas-cuckoo/

The Christmas Fairy of Strasburg – Germany
https://kraftmstr.com/christmas/books/gs-christmas_fairy.html   

The Christmas Orange – England   
https://spellbinders.org/the-christmas-orange/

Elijah the Prophet and St. Nicolas – Russia
https://surlalunefairytales.com/book.php?id=124&tale=4101

The Icon’s Warm Bread – Greece
http://www.stnicholascenter.org/pages/icons-warm-bread/

My Merry Christmas.com - “Christmas has ancient roots in many societies. The passage of time has perpetuated tales of legend surrounding the very icons we treasure these days during the season.” Enjoy fifteen legends associated with the holiday. Note: Unfortunately, the page is no longer active on the website. However, it may still be accessed via this link via the Wayback Machine.
https://web.archive.org/web/20060205011209/http://mymerrychristmas.com/2005/christmaslegends.php

The Silver Pinecones – Bohemia – My blog post from 2009 with the story and a few complementary crafts.
https://karenchace.blogspot.com/2009/12/the-silver-cones-christmas-tale.html

World of Christmas

Twenty-two tales to delight and share with your audiences. The site also offers information on Christmas symbols and superstitions and a plethora of all things Christmas piled high under their tree.

http://www.worldofchristmas.net/christmas-stories/

CRAFTS

Paper Bag Reindeer Puppet – http://tinyurl.com/39yppmg

Paper Plate Poinsettia - http://tinyurl.com/39jmkws

Christmas Crafts and Printables - http://tinyurl.com/yxwong

Holiday Origami - Spice up your holiday stories with two easy to do origami folds; a star and a Christmas tree:
http://www.planetpals.com/ppcraft2.html
http://www.tammyyee.com/origamitree.html

GAMES 

World of Christmas – This link will lead you to a wide variety of games to entertain the children throughout the holiday. 
http://tinyurl.com/ykcoxud

MUSIC

The Hymns and Carols of Christmas -The site offers downloadable midi files, some sheet music and also highlights the poetry of the Christmas season.  http://tinyurl.com/ygmnjv

SOMETHING EXTRA

Christmas At Sea – Interesting historical information about how the sea is connected to the season.
https://mymerrychristmas.com/x/christmas-at-sea/  

Karen Chace 2011 ©

This blog post was researched and compiled by Karen Chace. Permission for private use is granted. Distribution, either electronically or on paper is prohibited without my expressed written permission. For permission please contact me at storybug@aol.com. Of course, if you wish to link to my blog via your website, blog, newsletter, Facebook page or Twitter please feel free to do so; I greatly appreciate your support and personal integrity.

Reach for the Stars!

The Summer Reading Program theme for the 2009 Massachusetts Library System is Spaceship Adventure. While putting my Reach for the Stars storytelling program together to complement the theme, I decided to rewrite a well-known story stretch.

If you are not familiar with the term it is a call and response chant, usually used about halfway through a storytelling program to get the children up, and the wiggles out!

Get everyone up on their feet and tell them they will repeat the words, and the actions, after you. Keep adding the actions, don't stop the previous ones until everyone looks pretty silly and is laughing. You are welcome to use it in your programs, please just give me attribution. Have fun!


My Aunt Came Back From the Milky Way
Karen Chace © 2009

My aunt came back from Milky Way and brought to me some drums to play. (Drum with the one hand.)

My aunt came back from Jupiter and brought to me some soup to stir. (Stir with the other hand.)

My aunt came back from Saturn’s rings and brought to me some bells to ring (Rock your body front to back as if you are a  ringing bell.)

My aunt came back from the planet Mars and brought to a real fast car! (Move side to side as if you were going around corners a bit too fast.)

My aunt came back from the hot bright Sun and brought to me some bubblegum. (Begin to chew in a VERY exaggerated and noisy manner.)

My aunt came back from the shining Moon and said to me this song is doomed! (Say this last line with silly gusto!)

Karen Chace 2009 ©

This blog post was researched and compiled by Karen Chace. Permission for private use is granted. Distribution, either electronically or on paper is prohibited without my expressed written permission. For permission please contact me at storybug@aol.com. Of course, if you wish to link to my blog via your website, blog, newsletter, Facebook page or Twitter please feel free to do so; I greatly appreciate your support and personal integrity.

A Good Time for Storytelling!

Storytelling has been very good to me of late. Today, I had the pleasure of performing two shows at a beautiful art gallery, Artworks, in the historic city of New Bedford for Summerfest, an annual event with delicious food, including homemade ice cream, fabulous music and kiosks filled with handmade wares of every shape and size.

Artworks offered crafts for the children to make and take, a new installation of art for the adults and storytelling for everyone. The children were grand and we had lots of fun traveling the world with story.

This past Thursday I completed a two week program at our local Summer Cafe. Each year the school district offers, each in two week intervals, for children to take and of course, learn. They offer cooking, tennis, math, art, etc., and for the first time this year, storytelling. My group, ranging in ages from 7 - 10. met for eight days, two hours a day, to learn the art of storytelling, choose their stories, practice, practice and practice some more. Each day they clamored for a story so I got to practice as well. On Thursday they performed for two small groups of children who are taking other classes.

We went to the library early, where they would perform, to rehearse one more time, I did some relaxation breathing with them and then one of my boys, suggested we meditate. He is eight! Evidently, his mother's friend is a drummer and before he performs he mediates. I asked him to explain it and show how to do for the other children and he did! We all sat cross-legged on the floor, closed our eyes, turned our arms and hands out and he began, "Om..." I couldn't help peeking and all of the children were actually doing it!

It seemed to work! One young boy, the youngest of the group, was moving so much when he practiced he actually tripped himself a few times. He had a bit of trouble story each time he practiced and I wasn't sure what would happen in performance. I was so surprised when began to tell today. He was so at ease, so comfortable, having tons of fun, and with a gleam in his eye he told his Irish tale. He completely surprised me! I was overjoyed for him.

The other first time tellers were grand as well and were so very proud of
themselves. They all received their story stones and Applause Awards and asked me to start a story troupe at their middle school in September.

From local storytelling to the world wide web! Last month I was lucky enough to be a guest on Eric Wolf's program, The Art of Storytelling With Children. Every Tuesday Eric interviews storytellers and educators from around the country on a variety of issues pertaining to storytelling. You may call in and listen, then at the end ask questions, or visit his site later and listen in. Each guest also shares a blog post, offering more insight and information. My interview was posted on the web this week and if you have some time you can stop by for a listen. Just click and go: Karen Chace. If you are interested in the free resources I offer at the end of the podcast, I will be happy to share them with you as well. Contact me at storybug@aol.com and I will email them to you right away.

A good time for storytelling indeed!