I am super excited to present to you my Pete the Cat Christmas Extravaganza! Initially I wanted to do my holiday storytime using the new Pete the Cat saves Christmas book. Then, after making a suggestion that someone make a Gingerbread Pete the Cat I decided to do that as well. Since I usually do three stories at my storytimes I needed one more Pete the Cat story. So, I made up my own story inspired from Pete the Cat: I love my white shoes with a guest appearance by Pete!
First I give you Ginger Pete! Ginger Pete was made by combining Pete's head and a gingerbread man's body. He has peppermint stick whiskers and some very tasty looking gumdrop buttons. (The gumdrops were made by painting glitter glue onto the craft foam.) My plan is that the story will go like this:
I was making some gingerbread men the other day and decided that I needed to make one of my favorite book characters: Pete the Cat! So, I rolled out the gingerbread, cut the shape, and added some peppermint sticks for the whiskers. But, he needed a little something else, so, I gave him some gumdrop buttons. (I will have the kids count them as we put them on Pete.)
Ginger Pete loved the gumdrop buttons so much that he started singing:
My buttons, my buttons,
I love my gumdrop buttons!
But, those buttons looked so tasty. And, I really love gumdrops...so...I ate one! (It is very possible that I will say 'not the gumdrop buttons!' here, though most kids probably will not get the Shrek reference.)
Did Ginger Pete cry? Goodness no! Gumdrop buttons come and gumdrop buttons go (or get eaten). So, now Ginger Pete has three gumdrop buttons. But, I'm still kind of hungry and those buttons look SOOOO tasty, I'll just eat one more.
And so the story will go. When there is one gumdrop button I will tell them, 'he looks silly with just one button, might as well eat that one too!' And Ginger Pete cried:
My buttons, my buttons,
You ate ALL my gumdrop buttons!
Poor Ginger Pete seemed really sad. I felt a little bad about eating all of his yummy buttons, so I went and found some new buttons for Ginger Pete. That made him so happy he sang a new song:
My buttons, my buttons,
You can't eat my plastic buttons!
My buttons, my buttons,
You can't eat my plastic buttons!
The second story I came up with is called Away flew Santa's hat. I wanted to do something similar to Pete the Cat: I love my white shoes only with Santa hats. But, to dye his hat colors would involve lots of Santa landing on his head. I couldn't do that to old St. Nick, so instead the wind will blow his hats away. Obviously you could do the story with a child instead of Pete if you are not doing a Pete the Cat Christmas Extravaganza.
Here is the story I came up with. The songs are sung to the tune of Jingle Bells:
Away flew Santa’s Hat
It was Christmas Eve and Santa was all set to hop in his sleigh and deliver gifts to children around the world. To make sure he stayed warm during the windy ride he put on his boots, his furry red coat, and his white gloves.
‘All set,’ said Santa. But just asked he was about to walk out the door Mrs. Claus stopped him.
‘Aren’t you forgetting something, Santa?’ she asked holding out his warm Santa hat.
‘Oh dear!’ exclaimed Santa. ‘I wouldn’t want to forget my favorite hat.’ And then, because he loved his hat so much he began to sing:
Santa hat,
Santa hat,
Sitting on my head.
I hope all the children are
Fast asleep in bed!
He gave Mrs. Claus a quick kiss of thanks and headed out the door. But, just as he got to the barn a strong wind blew and away Santa’s hat flew!
‘Oh dear!’ exclaimed Santa. ‘What will I do?’
A jolly elf was standing nearby and saw what happened. ‘Here Santa,’ he said. ‘You can use my hat.’
‘Why thank you,’ said Santa and as he put it on his head he sang:
Green elf hat,
Green elf hat,
Sitting on my head.
I hope all the children are
Fast asleep in bed.
Santa waved goodbye to the elf and hopped into the sleigh. It was a windy ride, blowing the sleigh back and forth and up and down. Just as Santa was landing on the first house a strong wind blew and away Santa’s hat flew!
‘Oh dear,’ exclaimed Santa. ‘What will I do?’
Rudolph was standing nearby and didn’t want Santa to be without a hat. “Here Santa,’ he said. ‘You can use my hat.’
‘Why thank you,’ said Santa and as he put in on his head he sang:
Reindeer hat,
Reindeer hat,
Sitting on my head.
I hope all the children are
Fast asleep in bed.
Santa hopped into the chimney and quickly delivered all of the presents before heading to the next house. On he went, through the windy night delivering presents as fast as he could. But, just as he was climbing into a chimney in New Zealand as strong wind blew and away Santa’s hat flew!
‘Oh dear!’ exclaimed Santa. ‘What will I do?’
Since no one was nearby to offer a new hat, Santa quickly grabbed the first thing that he saw as he left the gifts under the tree. He plopped it on his head and sang:
Underpants,
Underpants,
Sitting on my head.
I hope all the children are
Fast asleep in bed.
The reindeer all giggled when they saw Santa’s new hat, but as there was no time to find anything better they let Santa climb into the sleigh and flew off into the windy night. On they went, from house to house delivering gifts so fast no one knew Santa was there. Until, they reached a house in Florida and Santa slid down the chimney to find someone waiting. He was a small blue cat, all ready for bed wearing his best Christmas pjs, complete with a furry red hat.
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| Just realized that at this point of the story Santa will still have underpants on his head :) |
‘Santa,’ asked the cat ‘what is that on your head?’
‘Underpants,’ he replied, feeling quite silly. ‘My hat blew away and they were all I could quickly find to keep my head warm.’
The cat pulled the hat from atop his own head. ‘Here Santa, take mine. It is my gift to you.’
‘Thank you Pete!’ Santa cried. ‘You have true Holiday spirit.’ He handed Pete a wrapped box and headed back up the chimney singing:
Santa hat,
Santa hat,
Sitting on my head.
I hope all the children are
Fast asleep in bed.
Santa managed to keep the hat on his head the rest of the night. A few days after Christmas, Pete found a package wrapped on his front door. He opened it up to find a brand new hat along with a note that said:
To thank you for your kindness, Mrs. Claus made this hat just for you. Happy Holidays! Love, Santa.
The new hat was a perfect match for Pete’s favorite pair of pajamas. So, he plopped it on his head as he sang:
Groovy hat,
Groovy hat,
Sitting on my head.
I will wear my groovy hat
Every night to bed!
If you choose not to use Pete at the end you can change the song to match. For example you could have a little girl who gets a princess hat or a little boy who gets a cowboy hat.
So, with those two stories and reading Pete the Cat saves Christmas by Eric Liwtin and James Dean I will have a full storytime. We will do some songs between the stories, probably some Jingle Bells (I am thinking of giving them bells to ring during the song in Pete the Cat saves Christmas, so maybe after that book.) Sing-a-longs have gone over well in the past. A few of those, the Reindeer Pokey and some crafts at the end and we're all set!
I also plan to give all of the kids a little bag of gumdrops. I figure after talking about eating them it only seems fair.
You can find this week's special Holiday Round Up with Linda at Notes from the Story Room. All things Flannel Friday can be found on the Flannel Friday blog, and all Flannel Friday posts are pinned to the Pinterest Boards.
Happy Flanneling!
