Guided Sleep Meditation & Sleep Hypnosis from Sleep Cove - A Fairytale Bedtime Story - Christmas Wishes

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Starting point is 00:00:46 please go to sleepcove.com slash support. That's sleepcove.com slash support. If you can't support the show right now, please subscribe with a bell to get alerts on all new free content thank you have you ever gazed in wonder at the great pyramid have you marvelled at the golden face of Tudankhamun

Starting point is 00:01:16 or admired the delicate features of Queen Nefertiti if you have you'll probably like the History of Egypt podcast every week we explore tales of this ancient culture The history of Egypt is available wherever you get your podcasting fix. Come, let me introduce you to the world of ancient Egypt. Hi there, it's Chris here, and welcome to Sleep Cove, the place to get a great night's sleep. Tonight, I'm reading a Christmas story called Christmas Wishes. It's a charming fairy tale about a spoilt prince.

Starting point is 00:02:06 That strongly reminded me of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. I really think you'll love it. I want to thank everyone who's been leaving me great reviews this week. Rosemey 77 says, This pod has truly been a life-saving for me. 10 out of 10. I recommend it to everyone I know, struggling with sleep, depression and stress.

Starting point is 00:02:36 A lot of people are suffering with these issues, and this podcast is seriously such a blessing. Well, thanks for your amazing review there. Abby Chapman says, thanks for all the great episodes. And Hazar says, love, please do more fairy tales. Well, I hope you enjoy the fairy tale tonight. Please tell me on Apple and Spotify comments what you would like to hear next, and I will sure try and answer them. If you like this episode, there is a Christmas premium episode on our supporters feed

Starting point is 00:03:12 called the elves and the shoemaker from the Brothers Grimm. You can sign up today on our supporters feed at sleepcove.com slash support to get access to that episode. I was to thank everyone who is subscribed to Sleepcove Premium. Sleepcove is an independent show so your support helps. remain independent and authentic, so thank you to every one of my supporters. To stay up to date, please remember to subscribe and follow, and you can also keep up to date on our mailing list and see what is happening in the future at sleepcove.com slash bonus. We've got some exciting

Starting point is 00:03:58 updates and want to share with you on there. Begin. Christmas wishes by Louise. Chenet, King Nutcracker, prepared for the Christmas feast with uncommon splendour. For on that day, Santa Claus had promised his three sons, what do you suppose? A pony or a boat a piece? Of what used to bring such things to Prince Nutcracker and Prince Butten's, who were men? While for the little Prince Pepin, who had everything that he wanted since he first learned to cry for it. No, Santa Claus had promised them each a wish. What would the princess wish? Nobody knew, for though the court journal declared that of course their wishes would ensure the happiness of their subjects. The court journal knew no more of the matter than you or I.

Starting point is 00:05:13 And as all this happened before we were born, that is just nothing. Nevertheless, for weeks beforehand, the entire court was in a state of preparation. The Duke of the Powder Closet Powdered the Combe Wigs. at such a rate that they were obliged to station a line of pages from the powder closet to the pantry, who passed up refreshments continually to keep his strength up. The queen wore her hair in curl papers for a week, and spent the most of her time in the kitchen where the pies and the plum pudding were in making. And his majesty grumbled that he could not stir without stumbling over a trumpeter,

Starting point is 00:06:13 practising his bit of the Christmas chorus in a corner. For himself, the king ordered a new blue velvet coat and sent his crown and scepter to be mended and rubbed up at a goldsmith. All the pink pages had new blue velvet coat, had new green slippers. Ten of these pages were to help Santa Claus out of his sleigh, and ten were to hold his reindeer. And all the time they were to sing a song of welcome, and to step all together. So they practiced five hours a day, with the Lord High Fiddlesticks, and the Lord High Fiddlestick bawled himself horse.

Starting point is 00:07:04 while the pages lost flesh and temper in trying to learn. What a pity, after all these pains, that Santa Claus left his reindeer behind him, and slipping in just when nobody was looking for him, stood among them, not with his Christmas's face, but looking sad and surly. If you were my boys, said he gruffly,

Starting point is 00:07:34 Catch me giving you a wish. I would shut you up in an iceberg first. However, a promise is a promise. Let us hear what you have to say. All the courtiers stood up on tiptoe, and you might have heard a pin drop. They were so anxious to know what the princess wished. Pepin, though, the youngest, being a saucy, spoiled boy, spoke first.

Starting point is 00:08:05 A prince should always have his own way, said Pepin. Now there are a great many things that affects me. Sometimes when I am flying my kite, there is no wind. Now I think that a prince should always be able to fly his kite. If not, I might as well be any other boy. In the same way, it rains when I'm going to drive. And the sun sets before I am ready, and my ball will tumble down when I want it to stay up. And sometimes it is too warm, and sometimes it is too cold.

Starting point is 00:08:52 In short, there is no end to my annoyances, and I want to regulate these things myself. Santa Claus looked hard at Pepin to see if he was quite in earnest Pepin looked back at Santa Claus with a serious face Have your wish while you remain a prince said Santa Claus The courtier stared

Starting point is 00:09:22 But no one had time to make any remarks For Prince Nutcracker In a violent hurry lest buttons should get ahead of him wished for the luck penny. Now you know, whoever has a luck penny will make money, more money, much money, and will never lose any. But there is one objection, remarked Santa Claus. By continual use, the luck penny, by and by, will look larger to you than anything else. "'That is nothing,' said Nutcracker,

Starting point is 00:10:03 "'slipping the look penny into his pocket. "'Prince buttons, blushing to the tips of his ears, "'wished to marry the shoemaker's sweet daughter, "'and that the spirit of Christmas might live in their houses the year round. "'Give us your hand,' cried Santa Claus, "'pulling out the holy spig from his cap, and giving it to buttons. Father King jumped up fuming and spluttering.

Starting point is 00:10:36 You idiot, you lily, the daughter of the shoemaker and the Christmas spirit indeed, Christmas fiddlestick and foldy roll out of my sight. His Royal Highness was in such a rage that he actually lifted his royal foot to kick the prince. The Queen fainted. the courtiers cried, oh, Prince Buttons ran away in the mist of the hubb Santa Claus disappeared, and to make matters better, the court suddenly found itself in darkness.

Starting point is 00:11:18 It was high noon, but the sun had parked out of the sky like a snuffed out candle. Nobody could find candles or matches. And if the confusion was great in the palace, it was worse in the city. People were left standing in darkness, and the shops and ferries and depots. People were eating dinners, and people who were getting them, and people who had just come out to see Christmas, were all served alike. Everybody was in a fright. some screamed one thing and some another and all the time there was nothing that matter only prince pepin who was in a hurry to see the arch of chinese lanterns had ordered the sun to set

Starting point is 00:12:13 see here pepin cried the king in a passion order the sun up again and if i catch you doing such a thing pepin who was afraid of his first father did not wait for the rest of the sentence. So just as everybody had lighted candles, all turned on the gas, there was the sun again. Seems to me, said Pepin sulkily, I am not having my own way after all, and he went in a wretched humour to play Battledore and shuttlecock. He made some bad strokes. and the shuttle cock tumbled on the ground. Hateful thing, forever coming down, cried Pepin. It only obeys the law of gravitation, my dear, said the Queen.

Starting point is 00:13:11 I wish there were no law of gravitation, snapped Pepin. Whisk, Pepin was flying through the air, as if he had been shot from a gun. Kicking frantically, he saw the king. King, the Queen, everything, coming after him. Something hit him hard on the nose. He was in a perfect storm of great round apples, flying in all directions, upon his head, in his mouth, on his shoulders. How he wished they had stayed in the market.

Starting point is 00:13:53 Pepin dodged and squalled. The air was full of the same. stones and timbers. A horse was kicking just over his head. Somebody had him by the hair and somebody else by the legs. For of course everybody clutched in all directions to save himself, screamed Pepin, amidst the general uproar of barking neighbours, braying, clucking and shouting. I wish the rule of gravitation was back again. Once, Pepin, the king and queen, and the people were on their feet. Everything was in its accustomed place. Everybody a little rumpled, but nobody hurt. The king was disposed to be angry, but the queen declared that Pepin

Starting point is 00:14:55 was only a little thoughtless, the courtiers murmured, quite natural, and the court journal pronounced the affair the best joke of the season, but the people looked very glum over it. That made no difference to Pepin, who continued his jokes very much at ease. Often when he was lazy, the sun did not rise until not. noon and people might twist and turn in bed or go about their business by candlelight as they chose. But on the contrary, he found his play amusing. He sometimes kept the sun in the sky till nine o'clock at night, while all the children in the city were crying for sleepiness.

Starting point is 00:15:52 Three nations declared war on kingdom. cracker, because Pepin sometimes ordered a dead calm for weeks, and sometimes had the winds blowing from all quarters at once, and navigation was quite impossible. The doctors were almost worn out, and the people died on all sides from constant violent changes of weather. For, if my young master got heated in his play, he made nothing of ordering the thermometer down to 60 degrees. The farmers were all in despair. The Pepin hardly allowed a drop of rain to fall.

Starting point is 00:16:41 And having a fancy for skating in summer, he ruined what harvest there was by a week of ice and snow in general. lie, remonstrance was quite useless, for Pepin was no longer afraid of his father, since he could leave him at any time in total darkness. So one night there was heard a loud knocking at the palace gate, and though the pages and the guards and the watchman turned over on the other side and tried very hard to go to sleep again. The knocking grew so loud that they were obligated to get up and see what was the matter. There was a mob at the gates.

Starting point is 00:17:34 The people tired of Pepin's jokes had rebelled. Some ran one way and some another. Prince Nutcracker put his knuckpenny in his pocket and walked out of the back door. No one stayed to look after the king and queen He were running about in nightcap and slippers In a terrible fright And if it had not been for buttons Who on the first alarm ran to the palace

Starting point is 00:18:08 From which he had been kicked out six months before They would have been in a sorry case I think On the next day the court journal came out with a new heading. It was now called the People's Journal, and it said now on the night before, old Mr and Mrs Nutcracker and their boy Pappin had escaped. Nobody knew how, and nobody cared,

Starting point is 00:18:38 and that young Mr. Nutcracker, the former heir to the throne, had opened a fine new stall on Main Street. So you perceive there was no longer a royal family. As Nutcracker had the luck penny, of course he made money in his new store. Every day and all day long he looked straight at the penny. At first he used to see other things. But as he took no notice of them, by and by the penny grew so large

Starting point is 00:19:16 and it covered them all and then he had no more troubles. He made money all year round and gave none of it away. None to Pepin because he had brought about their misfortunes.

Starting point is 00:19:34 None to buttons because he might have wished for something better if he liked than a Hollybush and a shoemaker's daughter. None to anybody because why should not people work and earn money as he had done if they wanted?

Starting point is 00:19:53 And every day he grew more and more like the penny. That is of less and less use for anything. That was not buying and selling. For Santa Claus, he had not seen him in ten years, till one Christmas Eve, when hearing a sudden jingling of snail's, He looked up and saw Santa Claus just coming down on the hearth rug. I stopped my sleigh, said Santa Claus, to see if you had anything to send your father and brothers.

Starting point is 00:20:31 Why should I send them anything? answered Nutcracker certainly. Santa Claus put his hands down in his fur pockets, as if he was trying to hold himself. What for? Aren't you rich and they poor flesh and blood? Confound it, man. If you have not the instinct of a son and a brother, you must feel the Christmas spirit at least once a year in your heart,

Starting point is 00:21:04 urging you to love and kindness towards your fellow men. Well, I don't then, snarled Nutcracker. Men need holidays to rest, I suppose. though I don't. But for Christmas being any better or having anything more in it than any other day, I say Bosch.

Starting point is 00:21:27 Give me plenty of money and I can buy all the love and kindness I want. And if other folks want it, let them work and earn money as I do. Nutcracker never finished his speech because he could not. A singular dumb dry and hard feeling had taken possession of him. His legs were gone. At least he could see them

Starting point is 00:21:57 nowhere. So were his arms. Something wrapped in. He had a strange notion that he had grown round, and that it sounds ridiculous, but Nutcracker was quite positive that he was in a table draw among some coin, and that he was a copper penny. By and by, he heard a shrill voice. Mr. Nutcracker, Mr. Nutcracker, that was his wife. Then he heard his children calling, Papa, Papa, then running up and downstairs. They were searching for him.

Starting point is 00:22:45 then somebody declared that he had disappeared. Somebody else said that he must be advertised for and taking a handful of money from the draw Nutcracker among the rest carried him to a newspaper office and paid him at a window for an advertisement about his own disappearance. Two minutes after

Starting point is 00:23:14 the man at the window gave him in change to a gentleman who paid him out to a newsboy, who bought an apple with him of a grocer, who gave him in change to a shoemaker, who dropped him into his soiled and patched pocket, where Nutcracker found nothing else but a $5 gold piece. This shoemaker was buttoned. Was not this a charming way for two brothers to meet? The pocket into which Nutcracker dropped was a very poor pocket, soiled and patched, and as I said, but Notcracker had not been in it for five minutes,

Starting point is 00:24:04 when he felt, how shall I tell you? It is not easy to describe feelings, that this shoemaker, who walked in the biting wind, with no overcoat and his hands in his pockets, had warmth and sparkle in his heart that made Nutcracker feel brighter, though he could not tell why. There were Christmas trees on all corners, and Christmas wreaths piled on the stands,

Starting point is 00:24:37 and at every tree and wreaths, buttons warmed more and more. There were women going home from market with a broad grin on their faces and a drum or a little bedstead on top of the cranberries and turkey and buttons laughed back at them as he walked, whistling and looking around him. And splendid ladies came smiling out of the shops, and buttons smiled at them, till between the signs of the signs of the eyes. till between the signs of Christmas and the pleasant faces,

Starting point is 00:25:16 he got in such a glow that Nutcracker would hardly have said that he needed an overcoat. All this time, buttons walked very fast and very straight, till he came to a certain shop with a low door. Outside of this door was a clothesstand, and on this stand hung an overcoat marked only five dollars. Button stopped. Now, said he to himself, I need an overcoat. I have got five dollars in my pocket.

Starting point is 00:25:57 Shall I buy this overcoat? And Buttons imagined himself in the overcoat. His coat tails would not fly out. And of course he could not. put his hands in his pockets? And if not, where should he put them? Buttons took another look of the coat. It was certainly good for five dollars. But, said buttons, if I buy it, they will have no Christmas dinner. And Mar Nutcracker has set her heart on chicken and pudding. My little wife will never know the difference between Christmas

Starting point is 00:26:39 and any other day. The happen in his bed will never know any difference. I shall come home in my brutal overcoat, and that will be all. Then he began checking off on his fingers like this. A dressing gown for father, a shawl for mother, a new gown for the little wife, goodies for the children, a box of paints for Pepin and the dinner. Then he gave a little sigh and putting his hands in his pockets

Starting point is 00:27:19 walked away as fast as he came. Do you suppose that he bought all these things with a five-dollar gold piece? Nutcracker could not see of course, but he thought not, for how could he? Buttons lived upstairs in a mean little house in a dirty street. His rooms were small and they were crowded. There were old Mr and Mrs Nutcracker who never forget that they have been king and queen, and that Buttons' wife was a shoemaker's daughter, and never remembered that Buttons had returned their cruelty with kindness,

Starting point is 00:28:07 and I think we're not very nice people to live with. There was Pepin, who had been hurt, poor boy, in escaping from the palace, who had never risen from his bed. There was Button's pleasant-faced wife. There were three fat children. There was the holly bush, which had grown into a great tree. and there was Nutcracker did not know what, but something he was quite sure for which he had been searching all his life. The three fat children seized upon buttons, one by each hand and one by his coat tails. Ah, said Buttons, pretending to groan, I'm so tired, let the best child look outside of the

Starting point is 00:29:06 the door and see what he finds. The best child, open the door cautiously, half afraid, and set up a shout. Ma, come quick, here's a chicken and a cranberries and a paper. Here's raisins! Raisins! screamed the other children. A chicken, cried old Mrs. Nutcracker. Christmas wreaths, exclaimed his wife, peeping out into the little dark hall.

Starting point is 00:29:43 Why, surely you never made them? Yes, I did, said buttons, his eyes dancing. In the words, the cedars gave me boughs for nothing. Christmas wreaths, repeated Pappin from his bed, give me one, and seizing it in his thin fingers, nice it smells, like the woods, he said, lying his pale cheek on it, I wish I could see a tree once more. Buttons jumped up and ran downstairs very fast, and they heard him coming back, dragging something after him, bump bump

Starting point is 00:30:30 The something rustled and cracked and filled the room with a strong spicy scent of the woods buttons lifted it so that it stood just in front of Peppern's bed It was a spruce tree Its thick, strong branches spread out wide

Starting point is 00:30:54 Its top brushed the ceiling birds had built nests in its branches, mosses had lived about its roots. It knew all the secrets of the woods and the sky and the rains, and it told you about them as well as it could, whenever you stirred its branches. The little wife hung the wreaths all around the room. One on every nail. One over each window.

Starting point is 00:31:34 One over Pepin. One each on the backs of grandpas and grandma's chairs. It was getting dark and the firelight came out and danced on the ceiling and on the white cover of the little table. Peppin lay looking at the tree. The children chattered like a little bird. Even Grandpa and Grandma Nutcracker were smiling. The room was like a spicy, cozy little nest. What was it?

Starting point is 00:32:11 Nutcracker wondered more and more. Here in these people's faces, for which he had laboured all his life. Suddenly, Pepin cried out, Oh, there is something here hanging on a branch of the tree. Is it possible? answered buttons, that you had better take it down, Pepin. Pepin took it down. Why, it is for me, he said, looking at the name of the wrapper. Then you had better open it, answered buttons, in just the same tone as before.

Starting point is 00:32:54 Pepin untied the string, but his hands shook. It is square. He said feeling it. He took off one wrapper. It is hard, he said, trembling all over. He took off the second wrapper, and it nearly dropped from his fingers. A box of paints! screamed the children, dancing around.

Starting point is 00:33:20 Pepin tried to speak, but he could not get out one word. He kissed the box. He laughed, but you could say, see he was near crying. The little wife's eyes were full of tears. Come, come, said Buttons. Do people cry over Christmas gifts? There were no tears in his eyes.

Starting point is 00:33:45 He was ready to dance, though now he would have no overcoat. As for Nutcracker, he had a curious tingling sensation all over. he was only a copper penny, and happening to look towards the hearth, he saw Santa Claus. The old fellow had tied up his reindeer and slipped down the chimney, and was winking hard, and wiping his eyes while pretending to blow his nose. I have it, I have got it, and know what it is, cried Nutcracket at the top of his The Christmas spirit lives here all the year round, and these people love one another and are happy. That is what I never had at home.

Starting point is 00:34:43 Happiness, that is what my money could not buy. That is why I was every day trying to make more money, always hoping to make more money enough to buy it. Should you not think that but, but, buttons would have been very much frightened to hear such a voice coming out of his pocket. No doubt he would, only in some mysterious way. Nutcracker found himself on his legs again, and he was walking as fast as he could, with a pocket full of money to buy a monstrous turkey and the best overcoat in the city, and a boots and a hat to match, and a new gown.

Starting point is 00:35:30 and dressing gown, and a shawl, and a set of paints, and a great bouquet, and a basket of toys and candies. For whom? Why? For buttons and grandpa and grandma nutcracker, and the pleasant little wife, and Pepin and the children, of course.

Guided Sleep Meditation & Sleep Hypnosis from Sleep Cove - A Fairytale Bedtime Story - Christmas Wishes

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