Tilibou
The Great Snowstorm
It is the evening of the great day, the evening of the twenty-fourth of December. At the North Pole, everything is ready: the thousand-times-a-thousand presents in the Great Sack, the stockings folded, the reindeer brushed, the sleigh polished. In a few hours, Santa will fly off for the most beautiful night of the year. Everyone is joyful… and then, all of a sudden, the wind rises. The sky turns all white, not the pretty white of quiet snow, but the white that spins, the white that's angry. In just a few minutes, a great snowstorm wraps around the workshop. You can't see a thing through the windows, the snow piles up against the doors, the wind shakes the roof, and in the stable the reindeer stamp with worry. The door is blocked, you can't see three steps ahead, and the sleigh will never take off in this blizzard. «But it's Christmas night,» whispers Pim. «If we don't go, every child in the world will wake up with nothing.» Rather than give in to panic, everyone learns to do one very simple thing: breathe, huddle close together, and wait calmly, keeping faith, for the storm to show the tip of its nose. Because even the biggest snowstorm always ends up, sooner or later, growing tired and settling down. Your child discovers, with this story, that you are never quite lost as long as you stay together and keep calm, and that even the wildest, noisiest nights, they too, always end up quieting down. It is a reassuring story about keeping a cool head, about patience, and about the gentle certainty that the storm, one day, always stops. And when the wind drops at last, the flakes settle, and the great sky clears, everything turns wonderfully silent and sparkling. The sleigh can finally soar off beneath the stars, and the story settles gently down, like snow drifting quietly back after the storm, to carry your little one, soothed, toward a good, calm sleep. Santa doesn't pretend there is no danger, and he doesn't panic either. He says things calmly, he reassures the frightened reindeer, and he waits for the right moment: naming fear without dramatising it, and keeping faith together, is the whole spirit of Tilibou bedtime stories. And in the cosy workshop, the fire crackles while the storm rumbles outside, like a big blanket of sound. A screen-free Christmas story for toddlers from age 2, lovely at bedtime, at nap time, or on the road. As always with Tilibou, the ending stays soft and quiet, without music, so your little one can settle down calmly. All the Tilibou bedtime stories at