December 1, 2024 • 11 mins
Christmas kids story about a scarecrow who teaches a holiday lesson to a grumpy snowman.
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"The Snowman and the Scarecrow" was written by Jim McAmis and Craig Dominey
Storyteller: Jim McAmis
Audio Production: Henry Howard
The Moonlit Road Podcast is a production of The Moonlit Road, LLC.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:05):
(Transcribed by TurboScribe.ai. Go Unlimited to remove this message.) Dark 30 Productions presents The Snowman and the
Scarecrow, adapted by Craig Dominey and Jim McCamus
and told by Jim McCamus.
Up in the mountains of North Carolina, up
near Blowing Rock, there was a house and
it had a great big yard out in
(00:27):
front.
The year that this story that I'm about
to tell you happened, it snowed nearly every
day between Thanksgiving and Christmas.
It was going to be a sure enough
white Christmas.
Billy and Sally were real excited about that
because what they did was one day they
got out when it was pretty nice and
(00:48):
they got a little ball of snow and
they started rolling around out there in the
yard and they kept rolling it and rolling
it until it got got huge.
But it wasn't just huge, it was perfectly
huge and perfectly round and just glistened out
there in the sunshine.
Then they went and they got another ball
(01:09):
of snow and they rolled it around out
in the yard until it got good and
big.
It wasn't quite as big as that bottom
piece, but it was just as round and
just as white.
They had to get Dad to help them
put that one up on top of the
base.
Then they got some more snow and rolled
it around until it was the size of
a good big pumpkin and again Dad helped
(01:32):
them put it up on the top.
They had the beginnings of a very nice
snowman, but he wasn't finished yet and they
knew it.
So they went in the house and they
came back and put on that snowman a
big silk top hat and a black swallowtail
coat and a woolen scarf around his neck.
(01:55):
Then they got some shiny black pieces of
coal and they put them in for his
eyes, put another kind of a row around
for his teeth.
Right in the middle of his face they
put a fresh carrot and there he was.
Beautiful snowman, but Dad thought he needed one
more thing.
(02:15):
So he donated one of his old pipes
and they put it right there clenched in
his teeth and in front of the house
stood the most glorious snowman ever.
Now around the back of the house in
the kitchen garden was a scarecrow.
Now he had been a good scarecrow, scaring
(02:36):
crows all through the spring and summer and
into the fall.
But that time out in the weather was
beginning to show on him.
He had lost a lot of the stuffing
out of his britches and most of the
straw was gone and the britches just flapped
around in the breeze.
His coat wasn't much more than just rags
(02:57):
and tatters.
His straw hat had a hole in the
back of it and it was just a
sorry looking old straw hat.
The scarf that was around his neck was
almost non-existent and there he stood the
back of the house.
One day, a little bird flew out of
(03:17):
the woods and landed in front of the
snowman and looked up at the snowman and
said, Oh, Mr. Snowman, it is so cold
and the wind's blowing so hard.
I wonder if I might just get up
in your hat and get out of the
wind for just a few minutes just to
get good and warm.
Snowman looked down at the little bird.
(03:38):
Oh, a bird at my hat?
No way!
You must understand that I am the snowman.
Have you ever seen a more glorious snowman
than me?
Well, little bird didn't quite know what to
say but he knew he wasn't going to
(03:58):
get warm there so he flew around the
back of the house and there he saw
the scarecrow.
So the little bird asked the scarecrow the
same thing and the scarecrow smiled and looked
down at him and said, Why, little buddy,
I tell you what, I'd love to have
you along here with me here at Christmas
time.
Why don't you just fly up here and
there's a hole in the back of my
(04:20):
hat here and you can just make your
little nest up in there and just get
good and warm and we'll just spend Christmas
here together.
Later on, little mouse came scurrying out of
the woods before the snowman and he said,
Oh, oh, Mr. Snowman, it is so cold
and the wind's blowing and my ears are
(04:40):
cold and my feet are cold and even
the tip of my little tail here is
cold and I was wondering if just maybe
perhaps I could crawl up and get in
the pocket of your coat and stay there
and get just a little bit warm.
What?
A mouse in my pocket?
(05:02):
The snowman?
No, you may not get in my pocket.
A mouse in my pocket would never do,
just would never do.
No, get away, little mouse, get away.
Little mouse ran around the back and there
saw the scarecrow, asked the scarecrow the same
thing and the scarecrow looked at him and
said, Well, little buddy, well, I tell you
(05:24):
what, I got a bird in my hat.
Mouse in my pocket's not going to make
any difference at all.
In fact, the more the merrier.
Just come on in, we'll spend Christmas like
that.
So, little mouse crawled up and into the
scarecrow's pocket and was very warm and comfortable.
A little while later, a rabbit came hopping
(05:47):
out of the woods before the snowman looked
up and said, Oh, Mr. Snowman, I've come
to ask a very special favor.
If I might have just a small square
off the corner of your woolen scarf that
I could take back into the woods and
make the nest warmer for my babies because
(06:08):
they're so cold and it's so cold in
there and just a little piece.
A piece of my scarf?
Why, surely you must mistake me for someone
who cares because if I were to give
you a piece of my scarf, I might
have to give everyone and before long, I
(06:29):
would have no scarf and as you can
see, it's part of the entire snowman thing
here.
The scarf and the hat and the coat.
No, no, no, no, no, no.
I could never give you a part of
my scarf now.
Get away, get away.
A little bunny hopped around the back and
there saw the scarecrow and asked the scarecrow
the same question.
(06:50):
The scarecrow looked at the little bunny and
said, Oh, why tell you what there, feller?
Says, why don't you just take this whole
scarf?
Not really much of it left.
Can hardly even call it a scarf, but
you're welcome to the whole thing.
Take back there and just get them babies
warm and thus they spent Christmas.
(07:11):
The front of the house was the snowman
in all of his glory and in the
back of the house, the scarecrow with the
bird in the hat, the mouse in his
pocket and the knowledge that the little bunnies
were warm in the woods with his scarf.
A little while after Christmas, a warm spell
(07:31):
set in and the sun came up bright
and shining over the mountains one morning and
it hit the snowman first and he stood
there thinking, Oh, of course I should be
the first one warmed because I am the
snowman and the sun feels so good shining
(07:54):
on me.
Oh, this is so, what is, what, wait,
wait, oh, uh, there's, huh, there must be
a problem here.
There's, there's water getting in my, in my
eyes.
Uh, little drips.
Where's the water?
It doesn't appear to be raining.
No, and, and, no, there's, there's more water
(08:15):
running into my eyes and, oh, no, there's
a waterfall going off my belly.
I, I, what, what, and then all of
a sudden, shoom, it got dark.
Why, the sun could not possibly have gone,
oh, I see my hat's falling down over
my eyes.
Hmm, wonder what it is about sunshine that
(08:37):
makes top hats get bigger.
No, and, wait a minute, I can't see
and, and, oh, there's, there's more.
I, I know what it is.
All this water, I know where it's coming
from.
It's me.
I'm, I'm, I'm, and before long, the snowman
was nothing but a puddle in the front
(08:58):
yard with a pile of coal and the
clothes and the pipe and the carrot.
Since it was a nice warm day, Billy
and Sally's mama ran them out of the
house.
They had been in the house since Christmas
and it was time for them to get
outside and play with their outside toys, at
(09:20):
least that's what she told them, and they
came out and were playing and they noticed
that the snowman was gone.
They were sad, but they said, well, there'll
be more snow and we'll build more snowmen,
but now it's time for us to gather
up all this stuff and take it back
in.
And as they started into the house, Sally
looked around the back and there she saw
(09:41):
the scarecrow and she said, Billy, look, I
thought the scarecrow had a scarf, but there's
no scarf on that scarecrow and look, look
at his coat.
His, his coat is just all rags and
tatters and that hat, that straw hat is
so worn out, there's a big hole in
the back, it looks like maybe a a
(10:01):
bird's nest or something.
And then they both had the same idea
at the same instant.
They looked at each other and smiled and
headed towards the scarecrow.
They got to the scarecrow and they took
off the old tattered coat.
They took the straw hat off of his
head and they took the fine silk top
(10:23):
hat and put it on the scarecrow.
They put the black swallowtail coat on the
scarecrow and wrapped that woolen scarf around his
neck.
They stood back and looked at their handiwork
and they agreed it has the finest looking
scarecrow they had ever seen.
Well, just goes to show you that you
(10:44):
ought to do good every chance you get
because when you're just a puddle, it's not
the stuff you had that folks remember, but
the good things you've done.
And that's the story of the snowman and
the scarecrow.
(Transcribed by TurboScribe.ai. Go Unlimited to remove this message.) Dark 30 Productions presents The Snowman and the
Scarecrow, adapted by Craig Dominey and Jim McCamus
and told by Jim McCamus.
Up in the mountains of North Carolina, up
near Blowing Rock, there was a house and
it had a great big yard out in
(00:27):
front.
The year that this story that I'm about
to tell you happened, it snowed nearly every
day between Thanksgiving and Christmas.
It was going to be a sure enough
white Christmas.
Billy and Sally were real excited about that
because what they did was one day they
got out when it was pretty nice and
(00:48):
they got a little ball of snow and
they started rolling around out there in the
yard and they kept rolling it and rolling
it until it got got huge.
But it wasn't just huge, it was perfectly
huge and perfectly round and just glistened out
there in the sunshine.
Then they went and they got another ball
(01:09):
of snow and they rolled it around out
in the yard until it got good and
big.
It wasn't quite as big as that bottom
piece, but it was just as round and
just as white.
They had to get Dad to help them
put that one up on top of the
base.
Then they got some more snow and rolled
it around until it was the size of
a good big pumpkin and again Dad helped
(01:32):
them put it up on the top.
They had the beginnings of a very nice
snowman, but he wasn't finished yet and they
knew it.
So they went in the house and they
came back and put on that snowman a
big silk top hat and a black swallowtail
coat and a woolen scarf around his neck.
(01:55):
Then they got some shiny black pieces of
coal and they put them in for his
eyes, put another kind of a row around
for his teeth.
Right in the middle of his face they
put a fresh carrot and there he was.
Beautiful snowman, but Dad thought he needed one
more thing.
(02:15):
So he donated one of his old pipes
and they put it right there clenched in
his teeth and in front of the house
stood the most glorious snowman ever.
Now around the back of the house in
the kitchen garden was a scarecrow.
Now he had been a good scarecrow, scaring
(02:36):
crows all through the spring and summer and
into the fall.
But that time out in the weather was
beginning to show on him.
He had lost a lot of the stuffing
out of his britches and most of the
straw was gone and the britches just flapped
around in the breeze.
His coat wasn't much more than just rags
(02:57):
and tatters.
His straw hat had a hole in the
back of it and it was just a
sorry looking old straw hat.
The scarf that was around his neck was
almost non-existent and there he stood the
back of the house.
One day, a little bird flew out of
(03:17):
the woods and landed in front of the
snowman and looked up at the snowman and
said, Oh, Mr. Snowman, it is so cold
and the wind's blowing so hard.
I wonder if I might just get up
in your hat and get out of the
wind for just a few minutes just to
get good and warm.
Snowman looked down at the little bird.
(03:38):
Oh, a bird at my hat?
No way!
You must understand that I am the snowman.
Have you ever seen a more glorious snowman
than me?
Well, little bird didn't quite know what to
say but he knew he wasn't going to
(03:58):
get warm there so he flew around the
back of the house and there he saw
the scarecrow.
So the little bird asked the scarecrow the
same thing and the scarecrow smiled and looked
down at him and said, Why, little buddy,
I tell you what, I'd love to have
you along here with me here at Christmas
time.
Why don't you just fly up here and
there's a hole in the back of my
(04:20):
hat here and you can just make your
little nest up in there and just get
good and warm and we'll just spend Christmas
here together.
Later on, little mouse came scurrying out of
the woods before the snowman and he said,
Oh, oh, Mr. Snowman, it is so cold
and the wind's blowing and my ears are
(04:40):
cold and my feet are cold and even
the tip of my little tail here is
cold and I was wondering if just maybe
perhaps I could crawl up and get in
the pocket of your coat and stay there
and get just a little bit warm.
What?
A mouse in my pocket?
(05:02):
The snowman?
No, you may not get in my pocket.
A mouse in my pocket would never do,
just would never do.
No, get away, little mouse, get away.
Little mouse ran around the back and there
saw the scarecrow, asked the scarecrow the same
thing and the scarecrow looked at him and
said, Well, little buddy, well, I tell you
(05:24):
what, I got a bird in my hat.
Mouse in my pocket's not going to make
any difference at all.
In fact, the more the merrier.
Just come on in, we'll spend Christmas like
that.
So, little mouse crawled up and into the
scarecrow's pocket and was very warm and comfortable.
A little while later, a rabbit came hopping
(05:47):
out of the woods before the snowman looked
up and said, Oh, Mr. Snowman, I've come
to ask a very special favor.
If I might have just a small square
off the corner of your woolen scarf that
I could take back into the woods and
make the nest warmer for my babies because
(06:08):
they're so cold and it's so cold in
there and just a little piece.
A piece of my scarf?
Why, surely you must mistake me for someone
who cares because if I were to give
you a piece of my scarf, I might
have to give everyone and before long, I
(06:29):
would have no scarf and as you can
see, it's part of the entire snowman thing
here.
The scarf and the hat and the coat.
No, no, no, no, no, no.
I could never give you a part of
my scarf now.
Get away, get away.
A little bunny hopped around the back and
there saw the scarecrow and asked the scarecrow
the same question.
(06:50):
The scarecrow looked at the little bunny and
said, Oh, why tell you what there, feller?
Says, why don't you just take this whole
scarf?
Not really much of it left.
Can hardly even call it a scarf, but
you're welcome to the whole thing.
Take back there and just get them babies
warm and thus they spent Christmas.
(07:11):
The front of the house was the snowman
in all of his glory and in the
back of the house, the scarecrow with the
bird in the hat, the mouse in his
pocket and the knowledge that the little bunnies
were warm in the woods with his scarf.
A little while after Christmas, a warm spell
(07:31):
set in and the sun came up bright
and shining over the mountains one morning and
it hit the snowman first and he stood
there thinking, Oh, of course I should be
the first one warmed because I am the
snowman and the sun feels so good shining
(07:54):
on me.
Oh, this is so, what is, what, wait,
wait, oh, uh, there's, huh, there must be
a problem here.
There's, there's water getting in my, in my
eyes.
Uh, little drips.
Where's the water?
It doesn't appear to be raining.
No, and, and, no, there's, there's more water
(08:15):
running into my eyes and, oh, no, there's
a waterfall going off my belly.
I, I, what, what, and then all of
a sudden, shoom, it got dark.
Why, the sun could not possibly have gone,
oh, I see my hat's falling down over
my eyes.
Hmm, wonder what it is about sunshine that
(08:37):
makes top hats get bigger.
No, and, wait a minute, I can't see
and, and, oh, there's, there's more.
I, I know what it is.
All this water, I know where it's coming
from.
It's me.
I'm, I'm, I'm, and before long, the snowman
was nothing but a puddle in the front
(08:58):
yard with a pile of coal and the
clothes and the pipe and the carrot.
Since it was a nice warm day, Billy
and Sally's mama ran them out of the
house.
They had been in the house since Christmas
and it was time for them to get
outside and play with their outside toys, at
(09:20):
least that's what she told them, and they
came out and were playing and they noticed
that the snowman was gone.
They were sad, but they said, well, there'll
be more snow and we'll build more snowmen,
but now it's time for us to gather
up all this stuff and take it back
in.
And as they started into the house, Sally
looked around the back and there she saw
(09:41):
the scarecrow and she said, Billy, look, I
thought the scarecrow had a scarf, but there's
no scarf on that scarecrow and look, look
at his coat.
His, his coat is just all rags and
tatters and that hat, that straw hat is
so worn out, there's a big hole in
the back, it looks like maybe a a
(10:01):
bird's nest or something.
And then they both had the same idea
at the same instant.
They looked at each other and smiled and
headed towards the scarecrow.
They got to the scarecrow and they took
off the old tattered coat.
They took the straw hat off of his
head and they took the fine silk top
(10:23):
hat and put it on the scarecrow.
They put the black swallowtail coat on the
scarecrow and wrapped that woolen scarf around his
neck.
They stood back and looked at their handiwork
and they agreed it has the finest looking
scarecrow they had ever seen.
Well, just goes to show you that you
(10:44):
ought to do good every chance you get
because when you're just a puddle, it's not
the stuff you had that folks remember, but
the good things you've done.
And that's the story of the snowman and
the scarecrow.
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