I know one but it’s just like a story, it’s just a story that it is said that Santa Claus at Christmas brings gifts to children who have been good all year. Baboushka, which means “grandmother” or “old woman” in Russian, lived in a big house, safe and warm. It transpires that the tale is not Russian at all, but the Italian tradition of La Buffana, an old hag or witch who, like Babushka in this story, misses the chance to see the infant Christ child and so spends all eternity making amends.

Her journey through the snowy countryside instead leads her to cold and hungry children, whom she helps by giving the food and clothing she has brought with her. Ideal for use at Christmas time, this story describes when the Three Wise Men visited Babushka on their way to see baby Jesus. Adopting the same format she used so effectively in A Calendar of Festivals (Children's Forecasts, Sept. Oh no surely it will wait another day,’ said Babushka, ‘or maybe two, because if I am to go on a long journey, I must clean the house from top to bottom. It was on one such winter night, when she was trying to sleep, that she heard a noise steadily growing louder, voices and grunts, despite she knew there were no humans or animals for miles around, what with the entire earth being blanketed in snow.Children like Christmas stories, because they already live in a world where everything is possible, magical, poetic, but adults like them too, because they allow them to dream of a world where goodness and beauty triumph. Try out our Twinkl Puzzled Adventure Books, including Adventure at Dragon Castle, The Theatre of Magic and The Lost Astronaut.

Reprinted with permission from BABUSHKA: A CHRISTMAS TALE © 2016 by Dawn Casey, Good Books, an imprint of Skyhorse Publishing.Your e-mail address is only used to send you our newsletter and information about the activities of Christmas FM and partners. Baboushka travelled for years but she still did not find that special child, who was in fact, Jesus Christ. This fascinating story of Baboushka is one of the reasons that explain why children received gifts during Christmas.

On her way, she visited the homes of good children and left presents for them, while they slept in their beds.Available with Words on Screen™ allowing you to display song lyrics on any whiteboard, computer screen, television or interactive touchscreen. Even the birds, that she would leave crumbs for, would desert her for warmer climes, leaving the old woman sad and lonely, wishing for company. Now Babushka was a widow who lived alone, and she was so house-proud that she spent nearly her whole time cleaning and sweeping, dusting and polishing, scrubbing and washing. Babushka dashed about, serving them and offering the best of her hospitality, asking lots of questions.

From village to village, Baboushka travelled and retold the story about the three wise men and the special baby to everybody she met, but the villagers could not help her. Three wise men, following the star to the Prince of Peace, stop at Babushka’s to warm their feet and fill their bellies. The story was translated into Russian at the end of the 19th Century, as part of an anthology of Christmas tales.Words on Screen™ versions of songs so that you can display song lyrics on any whiteboard, computer screen, television or interactive touchscreen. Babushka is the tale of an old woman, who was so keen on having everything in her house tidy and proper, that when she has unexpected guests, she misses out on a once in a lifetime chance.