This carol is baffling to kids (and adults)—six geese a-laying? Eight maids a-milking? Twelve drummers drumming? What? Why?!?!
Kids won’t care as they giggle their way through Greg Pizzoli’s new book. Favorite characters keep showing up, the gifts keep piling up, and Elephant and her family are baffled on what to do!
Okay, time to fess up: What’s one gift you’ve received that you didn’t know what to do with? Share a comment on this blog and you could win this book. Let’s do this quickly so that book can be under your tree; submit your comment by noon on Friday, December 22, to be included in our random drawing.
That’s not the only chance to win from Disney Books. Each month one lucky teacher wins a class set of 30 books. Plus you’ll find dozens of free teacher’s guides for favorite titles including books from Mo Willems, Rick Riordan, Doreen Rappaport, Greg Pizzoli, and many more. Click here.
Here’s something else to celebrate: a free grading app. Visit get.quickkeyapp.com to download QuickKey and give it a try.
Ready to tackle some STEM? Visit the Curiosity Machine. Make a mechanical leg, build a talking truck, or try another of 80+ free engineering challenges. It’s all at curiositymachine.org.
I’m off to the mall to see if swans a-swimming are still in stock….
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| Karen |
PS: Remember to watch your email to see if you’re our winner. We’ll email you to get your mailing address. The quicker you respond, the quicker the prize can get to you!
One year I received a too big sweatshirt with caroling cats on it. I do not like cats. Therefore it laid in the Christmas shirt bin until it went to goodwill.
Last year my aunt gave me a child-size Olaf back pack that she bought at Disney World. (I’m 48 years old & 5’10”. ) I left the tags on it and donated it to a church silent auction that raises money for its youth group.
This is embarrassing, but I was given a beautiful crystal cake plate with a pedestal for a wedding shower gift. I held it upside down and thought it was a veggie tray with the conical thing in the middle for dip. The beveled crystal seemed perfect for keeping the celery and carrots from rolling around. I didn’t and still don’t bake many cakes pretty enough to go on the plate!
A troll light that didn’t work.
One year a friend gave me a plain white dish towel and nothing else. It was really hard to be grateful for the gift when I didn’t know what the purpose of it was. I just ended up putting it in my towel cabinet.
Once I received a set of bath and body products of which I hated the fragrance. I didn’t want to regift them as I don’t like to give gifts that I, myself, wouldn’t like.
Just this year someone gave me a bag of spiced pecans that were burnt tasting. They apologized as they gave the gift – saying that they thought that they had left them in the oven too long.
As a teacher, I’ve received some pretty unusual gifts but I can always find an organization that welcomes my donations so they never go unused and are certainly never unappreciated! Happy holidays!
I received a box of chocolate covered cherries – yuck! So glad I had an aunt that loved them 🙂
One time I got some small wooden tongs from my mother-in-law in my stocking. I really didn’t know what they were supposed to be used for or what to do with them. I stuck them in a kitchen drawer. One day she came to visit and wanted to use the small wooden tongs. She used them to take hot toast out of the toaster.
I received some “too small” socks, but like some of the others, I was able to find someone to share them with.
I got a juniors size large pajama bottoms. I’m a size 12 so I was never going to fit into those!
Sweets! We get so many boxes of chocolates, that we give them away through February
I get lots of “best teacher” ornaments and because I feel compelled to keep them all I put them all on my tree every year and my husband and children laugh and say things like it’s the “best teacher” tree. I do however remember how I felt when I received my first one. I almost cried, because I teach in a city and my kids are really needy in many ways and it just meant a lot. Merry Christmas, Happy New Year! I love The Mailbox! Can’t teach without it.
I received a Very very large best teachers coffee mug. First this thing is huge if you drank out of it it would be cold before you finished it. Secondly I don’t drink coffee. I use it to hold scissors bi appreciate being thought of but that was a puzzler.
Merry Christmas everyone
I got a zip up travel office supplies kit. I was 10.
I received a gift certificate for a hot air balloon ride – I’m afraid of heights!
I got a gift certificate for a massage and I know a lot of people would love that but I hated it!
My aunt used to give me gifts that were way too small. From shirts to pants to sweaters. Back then we did not have Goodwill or a RESTORE so I just put them away to give if I ever found someone to donate. By the way my aunt wore clothes tight and too small for herself, so it was her thing to do.
Rhonda, you are our winner! Congratulations!
I received a used perfume bottle. It was a nice scent (expensive), I called mom and returned it to her.
I got a gift certificate for a salon that I don’t go to. I felt bad, but it went unused.
A child this year gave me a baseball card. 🙂
A big cloth bag. Supposed to be for toting things but I couldn think of what to tote!
Our school this year is doing a door decorating contest with a theme of the 12 Days of Christmas. It would be great to be able to read your story to my students! One year I received a tape measure from a student. I wondered what I was going to do with it, and when I asked the student, their reply was, “So you can measure how good we do in your class”!
I once got 2 cans of air freshener. The little boy told his mom i loved the smell of lilacs.
Before I went into teaching, I worked at a library. My boss at the time gave me a magazine; a magazine that was a month old!
Long wooly socks that were too small for me, and that really living in the desert, I could not see wearing.
A men’s fragrance perfume with a very inappropriate word on the label for a class to read that I quickly hid in my gift bag with all the other gifts from my students. Luckily, they were too busy having too much fun at the school party.
A sweater that was two sizes too big!
I am a teacher and I don’t remember ever getting a gift I couldn’t make use of in some way or other. I have gotten many coffee mugs and tree ornaments — too many to use for what they were meant for but always charished them because of the children who gave them to me. Some held pencils and other tools or were broken along the way but they were given with love and used with love!
A dear friend once gave me a wooden cat toilet paper holder that stores 6 rolls at a time on its tail. Quirky, just like my friend.
I’m expecting and someone gave me a jar of pickles and certificate for DQ. I laughed. I think it was a fun gift if not cliche!