Song and Story World
Song and Story World brings you delightful tales and catchy tunes for young children. Hosted by storyteller and musician Dave Corbett, each episode blends imaginative storytelling, music, and fun for Key Stage 1 and 2 children. Perfect for classroom story times, bedtime, or family listening, these short musical stories encourage creativity, friendship, and a love of language!
music, child, children, songs, songsforchildren, stories, DaveCorbett, podcastsforchildren, mewman37, Sooty, bedtime, KS1, KS2, funforkids, funnystories, catchysongs, kiddiestories, kiddiesongs, songandstory, song and story world
Song and Story World
Dark Sleigh. Danger is about for good old Santa and his canny elf. SORTED!
An ominous dark sleigh, a snowball gun, a red caped man with many nicknames. … what can it all mean?
Answers on a postcard please, or in an email to the address below.
CONTACT. : bewdley37@gmail.com
It was the night before Christmas, Christmas Eve you might say, in fact let’s say it WAS Christmas Eve. It was Christmas Eve, a busy night ahead for Father Christmas, (known as Crimbo to Ellie, his chief elf). Crimbo was busy wrapping presents and tying ribbon when Ellie came back into the packing roomafter a short toilet break. ‘Boss,’ (an alternative name for Crimbo), she said, ‘just heard rumours that the darksleigh has been spotted again.’ The darksleigh, a two horsepower sleigh, both of them actually not horses, but reindeer, which ominously and mysteriously appeared around Christmas time every year. The rider wore a black cloak and looked a bit scary, well, actually quite a lot scary.
‘Let’s go,’ said Father Christmas, Crimbo, Boss. ‘You ride Shotgun Ellie’. Shotgun was a new addition to the reindeer pack and got on really well with Rudolf. ‘Got it FC’. FC, Father Christmas’s initials and an alternative nickname to Crimbo and Boss.
Present delivery was going well, until it wasn’t. Suddenly FC and Ellie were bombarded with hard, icy snowballs. The ominous driver of the dark sleigh was firing his automatic snowball gun at them. Sixty rounds a minute, which meant … erm … one snowball every second.
‘Hang on a mo SC’, Ellie said. (SC initials for that champion of kiddies’ toys Santa Claus and an alternative to his other nicknames now getting too numerous to mention). She grabbed a particularly gaudily packed and decorated present, took aim, and threw it at the snowball gun. Direct hit. The gun exploded into a fine mist of harmless snowflakes and the dark sleigh, wobbled, wavered, and careered off into the distance.
‘Nice one Ellie. Let’s get this stuff delivered.’ And they did.
Now, you may be wondering what the ominous driver of the dark sleigh wanted .. well so am I. Was he trying to nab the presents for himself? Was he upset because all he ever got for Christmas every year was a crummy jumper his Granny knitted him? Was he jealous that Crimbo’s, SC’s, the Boss’s, FC’s sleigh was painted a gaudy, sparkly red and his was only a dull, boring, if a little scary, black? One of the great mysteries of Christmas, like the mystery of how did Father Christmas get into houses to deliver the presents when no houses had chimneys anymore? Like the mystery of why, after eating a mince pie in each house he visited, why didn’t he explode in a cloud of pastry and mincemeat ? We’ll never know. What do you think? Answers on a postcard please, or in an email to bewdley37@gmail.com
THE DARK SLEIGH. Lyrics Dave Corbett 2025
CHORUS
Dark sleigh, watch out for the dark sleigh,
you hear what they all say … keep away.
He’s coming for Christmas, he’s trying to spoil the fun.
He’s damaging Christmas for you, and for everyone.
INST
Dark sleigh, yes it’s really bad news,
not a thing you might choose … get away.
He’s coming for Christmas, he’s trying to spoil the fun.
He’s damaging Christmas for you, and for everyone.
Looming in the night sky, it’s an ominous sight.
Looming in the night sky, such a terrible, terrible, terrible night.
INST
Dark sleigh, watch out for the dark sleigh,
you hear what they all say … keep away.
He’s coming for Christmas, he’s trying to spoil the fun.
He’s damaging Christmas for you and for everyone.
Looming in the night sky, it’s an ominous sight.
Looming in the night sky, such a terrible, terrible, terrible night.
Dark sleigh, yes it’s really bad news,
not a thing you might choose … get away.