Winter bedtime stories
27 snowy stories for cold nights
Snow stories for cold evenings: first snowfalls, snowmen with good manners and lanterns lit on white hills.
In The Snow That Would Not Settle, the first snow of winter is too excited to lie down, and Tess has until morning to get it to settle. The Snowman Who Lost His Nose begins when a very polite snowman knocks at the farmhouse door to ask whether anyone has seen his nose. In Snow by Parcel Post, the winter’s first snow comes by post in brown paper parcels, and Rosie helps her mom deliver every one.
There are bears settling in for the long sleep, a fallen star in a snowy lane and a snowplough pulled by a humming white bear. Good for December, and for any night cold enough to want a blanket.
Snow, Slowly, Not IndoorsAn eight-year-old in Lantern Hollow finds a mysterious snow card in her Midwinter mitten and writes to the person in the observatory, with far too many P.S.s, to find out who made it before the lamp supper.
The Littlest Wind in the Bears’ DenOn the first night of the long winter sleep, a baby wind blows into a bears’ den and whistles a tune with its last note missing, and nobody can sleep until it ends.
The Bear Who Counted SheepA very sleepy bear promises to count an old shepherd’s twelve sheep into the barn, but one of them, Lumpy, walks backwards.
Snow by Parcel PostIn Rosie’s valley the first snow comes by post in brown paper parcels, and the very last one has lost its label to the drips except for one big smudgy R.
The Snow That Would Not SettleOn the night the first snow of winter finally falls, it’s too excited to lie down, and a girl who waxed her sledge in October has until morning to get it to settle.The Pot of SummerUnder a snowy meadow, a young mole keeps a whole summer in a teapot with no spout, and now he has to make it last through the longest night of the year.
Mina and the Snagged Snow CloudThe first snow of the year is stuck on the castle weathervane, and the smallest girl in the kitchen, the one who mends everybody’s socks, thinks she knows how to free it.
Hattie Calls the Geese HomeSpring only comes when the geese fly home, so with Grandad’s knee too stiff for the hill, Hattie and his snow-loving old dog have to climb Top Hill and light the welcome lantern on their own.
Tilly Cuts the First SnowOn the night before the first snow, a brand-new snowflake cutter who can’t cut a straight line keeps opening out boots, cats and teapots.
To My Boy, on the MountainThe valley’s postman is the Wind, which is old and a little hard of hearing, and one winter it brings a letter addressed “To my boy, on the mountain” to a boy who has never been invited anywhere.
The Queen with Cold FeetAn honest queen with freezing feet strikes a bargain with the small warm dragon in her chimney: he’ll keep her toes toasty all night, but each night she must tell him a story he has never heard before.
Ivy’s First FootprintsIn a valley where footprints in the snow glow gold after dark, Ivy has waited all autumn to make the very first footprints down her lane.
The Dot on Bear’s StoneThe first snow is falling and Big Bear has to get to bed, but there’s one small dot on his list of winter jobs and he can’t remember what it means.
A Letter for the Snow BearHis grandma’s post office has a hundred-year-old rule, “posted today, delivered today,” so when his little sister posts a crayon letter to the Snow Bear at five minutes to closing, Tom has until midnight to carry it up the mountain to a bear he isn’t sure is real.