MOUSE'S CHRISTMAS

This Christmas, Mouse was determined that his family would have a Christmas tree to brighten up their hole. So a week or so before Christmas Mouse got up early one morning and went to look for the perfect tree.

He went up out of his hole. [Make a cut from "a" to "b" as indicated by the dashed line in figure 1.]

He went across the field. [Make a cut from "b" to "c". ]

He walked up the lane... [Make a cut from "c" to "d".]

... and down the long hill to the grove of trees behind Farmer Jingle's house. [Make a cut from "d" to "e".]

There he found the perfect Christmas tree. [Unfold the sheet of paper to show the tree as seen in figure 2.]

Mouse went to work! nibblenibblenibblenibblenibblenibblenibblenibblenibble... "Timber!"

Mouse pulled that tree up the long hill, down the lane, across the field and back to his hole. But when he tried to bring the tree inside, he couldn't do it. But the tree was too big! Mouse pushed and pulled and pushed some more, but the tree would not fit in his hole. [Make the "hole" by making a circle with your thumb and index finger. Show how Mouse tried to push the tree point first into the hole.]

Mouse did not give up though. Early that afternoon, he went off to find a smaller, prefect tree.

[Refold the big tree and repeat the sequence, cutting a slightly smaller tree from inside the big tree... see figure 3. Repeat the sequence of the story, adding and changing details. For example, with each repeat it will be getting later and later... perhaps Mouse is starting to worry about owls and foxes... Repeat the whole sequence two or three more times until you have a tree that will fit in the hole... figure 4.]

This time the tree did fit! And it was perfect! Mouse and his family had a wonderful time decorating the tree, and when it was all done, they sat in the glow of the Christmas lights, drinking cocoa and singing Christmas carols...

But... the next morning, when Mouse went outside, he saw all those other Christmas trees... all those too-big trees that wouldn't fit in his hole... sitting there in the field. It wouldn't be nice to let all those perfect trees go to waste, so...

Mouse gave this tree to his friend, Bear... [Give each of the "too-big" trees to a child in the audience as you tell this part of the story.]

He gave this one to Wolf.

He gave one Bunny.

And this one, he gave to Chickadee.

[You might want to cut out some extra trees so that all the animals in your audience can have one...]

And that year, thanks to Mouse, all the animals had a particularly Merry Christmas.

THE END

TEXT AND ILLUSTRATIONS

© 2000 by Richard Thompson

You may print one copy of this story for your personal use. Reproduction by any other means is prohibited.

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