AUDIENCE PARTICIPATIONS & STORIES

Be sure to check out "The House Where Santa Lives" in the How To Book, page 5-6.  It is my favorite!!  CD

A Great Holiday

Sam Houston Area Council

Divide the audience into 9 groups. Assign each group one of the words listed below. When their item is mentioned in the story, the assigned group should shout the designated saying. Have a practice session before starting the story.

MOM AND DAD:        Remember your manners!

I:                                                   I’m soooo excited!

SNOW:                       Sprinkle with fingers and say
                                              ‘Flakes, flakes, flakes.”

PRESENTS:                                   Spread arms and
                                                    shout “A new bike!”

GREETING CARDS:       Hang them on the wall!

HOLIDAY DINNER:                 Rub stomach and
                                                        say “Yum, yum.”

DECORATIONS:                    Sing “Deck the halls
                                                with boughs of holly.”

LIGHTS:                                          Sparkle, sparkle

HOLIDAYS:                            All sounds and parts
                                                         at the same time.

Note -
There are 11 I's and only 4 or 5 of each of the others.  CD

My favorite time of year is winter. MOM AND DAD and I love the HOLIDAYS! I enjoy sending GREETING CARDS and eating a big HOLIDAY DINNER. I enjoy colder weather and the SNOW. But most of all I enjoy seeing all the LIGHTS and exchanging lots of PRESENTS! Our house is filled with DECORATIONS.

My favorite DECORATIONS are the candles and the LIGHTS. I help MOM AND DAD send GREETING CARDS, prepare the HOLIDAY DINNER, shovel SNOW, wrap PRESENTS, put up DECORATIONS and set out the candles and the LIGHTS. After we are finished, I read stories about the HOLIDAYS. There are so many different celebrations around the world!

Our family and friends visit during the HOLIDAYS. We exchange PRESENTS with little GREETING CARDS on them. MOM AND DAD tell me I must be patient and wait to open them. Sometimes our friends bring us new DECORATIONS. We burn the candles and turn on all the special LIGHTS. I look out the window to see if there is SNOW.

Finally, we all sit down to eat our HOLIDAY DINNER. MOM AND DAD say grace and thank our guests for joining us for the HOLIDAYS. We eat our HOLIDAY DINNER while the DECORATIONS and LIGHTS sparkle all over the house.

After dinner we look at the GREETING CARDS one more time. As everyone leaves, we thank them for the PRESENTS. When I open the door and go outside, you’ll never guess what I see. SNOW!

Winter Songs

Capital Area Council

Divide audience into four parts.  Assign each part a song and a response.  As each part comes along, the group stands and sings the first line of their song. Instruct them as each part comes along, the group stands and sings the first line of their song.  Practice as you make assignments.

Winter:                 "Dashing Through The Snow"

Santa:                           "Jolly Old Saint Nicholas"

Sleigh:          "Sleigh bells ring, are you listening"

Reindeer:     "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer

Once upon a tune, on a cold, dark Winter night, Santa sat in his workshop trying to decide what to do.  His Sleigh had a broken runner, his elves were behind schedule on toy production, his Reindeer were suffering from lack of exercise and they were weak, and he, Santa, had a cold. With Christmas only days away, and the Winter weather cold, and snowy, Santa was so depressed.  Rudolph, his most famous Reindeer, was unable to get his nose recharged, so that it barely glowed at all.

In a practice run, the Sleigh with the broken runner scarcely got off the ground.  With the toys to make, the elves were stopping early to watch the Power Rangers.  "Goodness me!" cried SANTA.  "How will I ever get everything complete by Christmas Eve?"

Out of the cold Winter night, trudged a cold, hungry old man.  "Santa," cried the cold, old, hungry man.  "If you will give me a hot meal and a warm place to sleep, I'll fix your Sleigh, cure your Reindeer, fix Rudolph's nose and get the elves to work faster."  Santa quickly agreed.  After they had eaten and a nice night's sleep, the old man went to work.

First, he plugged the nose of Rudolph, the red-nosed Reindeer into the television set.  This charged Rudolph's nose so that it glowed more brightly than ever, and it also blew a fuse on the TV set.  This enabled the elves to work later, since they couldn't watch the Power Rangers.  They quickly caught up to schedule.  In the meantime, the old man used parts of the TV set chassis to fix the runner on the Sleigh.  The Reindeer, not able to watch TV, began to run in the snow, and quickly regained their strength.  Santa slept better and got rid of his cold.

Because an old man knew the true value of the TV, everything was ready and on December 24th Santa hitched his Reindeer to the Sleigh and rode off into the Winter sky!

Old Fashioned Christmas

Capital Area Council

Divide audience into three parts.  Assign each part a word and a response.  Instruct them they are to say the response whenever they hear the word.  Practice as you make assignments.

Old Fashioned Christmas:      "Peace on Earth"

Toys:                                         "Buzz, bang, whiz

Gifts:                                             "From the heart"

Please note when reading this that it is a poem.

What is an Old Fashioned Christmas? a boy said to his parents one day.
They thought for a while before they would venture to say.

After talking it through and pondering a while,
They tried to portray to him the Old Fashioned Christmas style.

You see the holiday season we all know of today,
Often seems a far cry from what this season should portray.

People crowd in the stores buying meaningless Gifts and Toys,
In far too large a quantity for all the girls and boys.

In the Old Fashioned Christmas, things were different you see,
Far fewer Gifts than there seem to be.

So they were all given with love beyond measure,
Making the giving a wonderful treasure.

In the Old Fashioned Christmas the best Gifts of all,
Were those of goodwill or perhaps a token so small.

Toys were not given in excess by the score,
And many Gifts were home made, not bought from a store.

So if an Old Fashioned Christmas you wish now to see,
Remember the quantity of Gifts is immaterial as can be.

For an Old Fashioned Christmas let's all now start,
By remembering, my friend, it begins in the heart!

Through the giving of kindness and goodwill to all mankind,
An Old Fashioned Christmas we certainly can find.

The Gifts with a meaning in this season play a part,
With an Old Fashioned Christmas begun in the heart!