Star Child (or Star Money) is one of the most amazing of all of Grimm’s tales. I told it every year in Winter when I had my preschool. With each group we wet felted a puppet cloak of stars that fell from heaven, which Star Child wore at the end of our puppet show. Even the most challenging child transformed into their Golden Self through the making of this magic cloak. I truly believe in the healing power of this story.
Star Child
adapted for early childhood puppetry
Once upon a time there was a little girl whose father and mother had gone to heaven, and she was so poor that she no longer had a room to live in, nor a bed to sleep in, and at last she had nothing else but the clothes she was wearing and a little piece of bread in her hand that some kind soul had given her. She was good and pious, however, and as she was thus forsaken by all the world, she went forth into the country, trusting in dear God.
Then a poor man met her, who said, "Ah, do you have something for me to eat dear child, I am so hungry."
She handed him her entire piece of bread, and said, ‘you need this more than I,’ and she sang to him,
‘Here is my bread for you,
And gladly I give, God bless and keep you, As long as you live.’
He thanked her kindly, and she went on her way.
Then came a child who was crying and said, "My head is so cold. Do you have something for me to cover it with."
So Star Child took off her cap and gave it to the child, and said, ‘You need this more than I’, then she sang to him,
‘Here is my cap, and gladly I give,
God bless and keep you, as long as you live.’
The child thanked her and put on the cap, and ran along the path. Star Child continued on her journey.
And when she had walked a little farther, she met another child who had no jacket and was freezing. So she gave the child her own jacket, and said, ‘ You need this more than I,’ and she sang to him kindly,
‘Here is my jacket, and gladly I give,
God bless and keep you, as long as you live.’
The child put on the jacket and thanked Star Child, and down the path she went.
A little farther on there was a child shivering, with nothing to wear, and Star Child gave the child her own dress, saying to her, ‘you need this more than I, and she sang to her,
‘Here is my dress for you, and gladly I give, God Bless and keep you as long as you live.’
The child was so grateful she put on the dress and stopped shivering. Star Child went on down the path.
At length she made her way into a forest and it was already dark. Then there came yet another child, and asked for Star Child’s slip, and the good and kind Star Child thought to herself, this is all that I have left, but the child needs it more than I, so she took off her shift, and gave it away as well, singing as she did so,
‘Here is my slip for you, and gladly I give, God bless and keep you as long as you live.’
And thus Star Child stood there, with nothing left at all in the world, and she prayed to the heavens. Suddenly, stars fell down from the night sky and surrounded her with a beautiful cloak of stars, and although she had just given her shift away, she was now wearing a new one, which was of the very finest linen.
Star Child knew her prayers had been answered! From that magical moment onward, her life was filled with all she could ever have wanted or needed.