A Great Christmas
Great Sauk Trail Council

SANTA CLAUS: (Hold belly and laugh) HO, HO, HO

SNOW: (Sprinkle with fingers sayiing) FLAKE, FLAKE, FLAKE

PRESENTS: (Spread arms and shout) A new bike

GREETING CARDS: (Throw up hands and say) Hang 'em on the wall

MOM AND DAD: (Scold with finger) You'd better be good

HOLIDAY DINNER: (Shrug shoulders, hold up hands saying) Where's the beef

ANGELS: Do "Twilight Zone" theme while flapping arms

DECORATIONS: Sing "Deck the Hall with Boughs of Holly!"

CHRISTMAS: All sounds and parts at the same time

My favorite holiday is CHRISTMAS. I enjoy sending GREETING CARDS, I enjoy a big HOLIDAY DINNER, I enjoy the SNOW, but most of all, I enjoy SANTA CLAUS bringing me lots of PRESENTS.

The house is filled with DECORATIONS. My favorites are silver ANGELS. I help MOM AND DAD open the GREETING CARDS, fix the HOLIDAY DINNER, shovel SNOW, wrap PRESENTS, put up DECORATIONS, and polish the silver ANGELS. After we are finished, I leave out milk and cookies for SANTA CLAUS while MOM AND DAD clean up I can hardly wait until CHRISTMAS morning.

I race to the tree. I see SANTA CLAUS has left me lots of PRESENTS, with little GREETING CARDS on them. He's put some new DECORATIONS on the tree, including some new silver ANGELS, and he has sprinkled the branches with SNOW. Of course, he has left some lovely grown-up gifts for MOM AND DAD.

So we sit down to eat our HOLIDAY DINNER I turn on the radio and Frank Sinatra is singing "Hark the herald ANGELS Sing"! MOM AND DAD and I say grace and eat our HOLIDAY DINNER while the DECORATIONS twinkle all over the house. After dinner we look at the GREETING CARDS one more time, and then go out for an afternoon stroll in the falling SNOW.

I tell you, that SANTA CLAUS is quite a guy. He sure knows how to turn out a great CHRISTMAS.

The Great Christmas Gift Exchange
Great Sauk Trail Council

If you are having a gift exchange as part of your den or pack meeting, try this:

Everyone sits in a circle, holding the gift that they brought for the "exchange." Someone reads the story below, reading slowly enough for the gifts to be passed. Every time the word RIGHT is read, everyone passes the gift in their hand to the RIGHT. Every time the word LEFT is read, everyone passes the gift in their hand to the LEFT. The gift each person is holding when the story ends is the gift they keep.

Christmas was almost here, and Mother RIGHT was finishing the Christmas baking. Father RIGHT, Sue RIGHT, and Billy RIGHT returned from their last minute Christmas errands. "There's not much LEFT to be done," said Father RIGHT as he came into the kitchen. "Did you leave the basket of food at the church?" asked Mother RIGHT. I left it RIGHT where you told me to," said Father RIGHT. "I'm glad my shopping is done," said Billy RIGHT. "I don't have any money LEFT."

The hall telephone rang, and Susan RIGHT left to answer it. She rushed back and told the family "Aunt Tillie RIGHT LEFT a package for us RIGHT on Grandma RIGHT'S front porch. I'll rush RIGHT over there now and get it,: she said as she LEFT in a rush. Father RIGHT LEFT the kitchen and brought in the Christmas tree. By the time Susan RIGHT returned, Mother RIGHT, Father RIGHT and Billy RIGHT had begun trimming the tree. The entire RIGHT family sang carols as they finished the decorating. Then they LEFT all the presents arranged under the tree and went to bed, hoping they had selected the RIGHT gifts for their family.

Now, I hope you have the RIGHT present for yourself, because that's all that's LEFT of our story, except to wish you a Merry Christmas. Isn't that RIGHT?