Children enter in procession carrying lighted candles as the Storyteller sets the scene and takes us back to a snowy Russian village for this magical Christmas story...

Papa Panov,  an old shoemaker almost too blind to thread a needle, has a dream that Jesus will visit him on Christmas Day. All day he waits, but his only visitors are a tramp, a roadsweeper and a pauper woman and her cold and hungry baby. Despite his disappointment and fading hope, Papa Panov gives them his coat, his money, and his soup

Night falls and Papa Panov thinks himself a silly old fool. But then he has another dream which convinces him his special visitor did come after all

Papa Panov's Magic Christmas is adapted from a short story by Tolstoy, who first heard it as a French folk-tale. Read, print or download the opening scenes by clicking here

Papa Panov's Magic Christmas is published by Samuel French Ltd and can be bought online from The Internet Theatre Bookshop by clicking here