Bedtime stories are more than just sharing a cute story with your little one. There are many advantages of interacting with your child and sharing your time.
- Daily Routine: It helps them develop a daily routine.
- Bonding: It enhances the child’s bonding with the parent or the storyteller.
- Reading Preparedness: Helps them inculcate an interest in reading.
- Comprehension and logic: Improves their language skills.
- Communication: Makes the child more expressive and interactive.
- Morals and Values: A commendable means to imbibe moral values in children.
Here’s a list of stories that you could read to your children:
- Princess And The Magical Ring
- The Lonely Princess
- The Princess And The Pea
- The Princess And The Faithful Knight
- Flora: The Princess Fairy
List of Short Princess Bedtime Stories for Children
1. Princess and the Magical Ring
One fine day, the princess of the Kingdom of Norfolk, found a ring while in the palace’s garden. When she inquired about the ring with her father, he informed her that it would bring her five special powers.
- To have sound a sleep.
- To make fire without flint.
- To grow any crop of her choice.
- To shower rains even without clouds in the sky.
- To sing like an enchanted siren.
The fifth was the princess’ most enjoyed power. She would keep singing for long hours, hoping that someday, a charming prince would fall for her beautiful voice.
One dark day, the kingdom got jinxed with a witch’s spell. It affected everyone except the princess. The witch deprived the kingdom of everything it had including the fire, the sun, the rains and the crops too. Such a miserable state of her country saddened the princess. All she had to help her kingdom were her five special powers. A spontaneous idea popped into her mind. She rushed to the balcony and started singing. The princess sang for months, all day and even at night. She didn’t stop even when her parents asked her. After about a year of singing, the kingdom normalised. But simultaneously, the princess disappeared in the winds. The kingdom was restored to its original glory because of the princess’ sacrifices.
2. The Lonely Princess
The Kingdom of Glora was home to Princess Isabella, a friendly young lady who was loved by the whole kingdom. She had two elder sisters, Rose and Juliette but was nothing like them. Rose was quite charming, but no match to Juliette. Nevertheless, they were both as cruel and heartless since they were pretty. They kept teasing Isabelle for her plain appearance and simplicity and always made fun of her for playing with her toys. They coaxed her to dress up more, but Isabelle paid no heed to her sisters and continued to play with her toys. She loved her dolls as they never called her names, but she often felt lonely. King Paul, her father, was distressed at the sorrow of his youngest and favourite child, but although he tried to spend most of his time with her, he was often called away for extended periods because of his royal duties.
On a bright summer morning, the prince of the Kingdom of Meadow-Hill, Geoffrey, arrived in the Kingdom of Glora seeking a bride. He was a year younger than Juliette, a year older than Rose, and two years older than Isabelle. All the sisters were eager to meet the handsome prince. Prince Geoffrey first spoke to Juliette, praising her beautiful tresses. Flattered, Juliette told him how lovingly she took care of her hair. Geoffrey soon got tired of the conversation and tried to strike a conversation with Rose. To impress the young prince, Rose began describing her father’s court and talking about all the famous personalities in it. When Prince Geoffrey could hear no more, he decided to meet Isabella. As soon as he met Isabella, he was awestruck by her beauty. Juliette scoffed at Isabelle, berating her unkempt hair. Rose joined in, pointing out that all her sisters had beautiful eyes. Prince Geoffrey said, “She is blessed with beautiful eyes indeed”. “But she plays with toys!” Juliette countered, trying to make young Isabelle appear childish. “So what? Even I like playing with dolls. Removing a small doll from his pocket and introduced her to everyone as Jane, his oldest friend”. Isabella was delighted and offered to introduce him to her friends. When he agreed, she led him into the garden, leaving behind her cruel sisters.
3. The Princess and the Pea
There once lived a prince, who was in search of a suitable princess. He travelled across the seven seas in search of the right princess, but he wasn’t sure if the princesses he met were genuine. Disheartened, he eventually returned home.
One evening, there was a terrible thunderstorm. Having heard a knock on the door, the king went to open it. A princess was standing there in her soiled and muddy clothes. Her hair looked dirty, she was thoroughly drenched, and her shoes were covered in mud. Still, she claimed to be a real princess. “We’ll soon find out the truth,” said the queen. The queen went to the bedroom and took all the mattresses off it. She then placed a pea at the bottom and laid twenty mattresses on top of it. Next, she placed twenty eider-down beds on top of the mattresses. The princess was asked to sleep on the bed for the night. In the morning, the queen questioned the princess about the quality of her sleep. The princess replied, “I just couldn’t sleep all night. God knows what, but there was something very hard on the bed.” The queen then understood that she was indeed a real princess. Only a real princess would feel the discomfort through the twenty mattresses and eider-down beds. Knowing that she was a real princess, the prince took her as his wife.
4. The Princess and the Faithful Knight
Once upon a time, there was a Princess whose beauty was the talk of not just her own, but many a land. As beautiful as she was, the princess had been raised to be fair and just. As the days went by, the happiness and the joy of her people became her only concern. One day, a prince arrived at the kingdom to court the princess. The two spent hours, days and weeks together. The princess had fallen in love with the charming prince.
One day, the prince took his princess to a shady grassland full of flowers, located near the edge of the forest. He challenged the princess to pick out the rarest flower for him; the scarlet rose from the dense woods if she truly loved him. The princess entered the woods to search for the scarlet rose. She loved the prince, and she would prove it to him. When she had almost given up, she saw a beautiful flower. The princess was fascinated by its beauty and reached out to touch it, but immediately fell asleep.
The prince suddenly appeared. He had planned to steal the riches and jewellery of the princess. He took the valuables and abandoned the princess. When the princess did not return her father, the king sent his soldiers far and wide to look for her. After a long search, they discovered her in the meadow, covered in vine. His advisers discovered that she had touched a scarlet rose and thus she couldn’t be awakened. The king tried every possible measure and potion to wake her up, but nothing helped.
The disheartened king made it known that anyone who could wait by the princesses’ side until she awoke would win her hand in marriage. Many suitors came drawn by the princesses’ beauty, but she slept on unaware. As time passed, her beauty faded, and so did almost all the suitors. Except for one- a knight who had knelt at the princess’ side and hadn’t moved since the time he had arrived. When the princess woke up, she saw the strong knight kneeling by her side. He told her about the poison and the king’s decree and declared his undying love for her. The king was overjoyed at having his daughter back, and at finding a loving husband for her, and declared their wedding which took place the very next day.
5. Princess Rose and the Golden Bird
Long ago in a faraway land there lived a beautiful princess who had lovely red hair, and loved roses. Her name was princess Rose. Every evening, Princess Rose would come out on her balcony and clap her hands. On hearing her, a little golden bird would appear and sit on her shoulder. The princesses’ hair would glow with a beautiful red light, and she and the bird would sing a lullaby that would put everyone in the kingdom to sleep
One day a jealous witch cast a spell on Princess Rose and turned her lovely red hair black. That night when the bird and the princess sang, the people of the kingdom had nightmares and bad dreams. The bird told the princess to wash her hair in rose water, and all would be well again. The princess washed her hair with rose water, and people of the kingdom slept well.
When the evil witch heard this, she turned Princess Rose’s hair black again, and this time she also made all the roses in the land disappear. As Princess Rose wept in despair, a Prince appeared with a strand of red hair. When her tears touched the hair, a beautiful red rose bloomed, and Princess Rose was able to make her hair red again. The Prince revealed that he and the princess had exchanged a strand of hair as children as a sign of loyalty..
The Prince and Princess Rose got married and lived happily ever after, and the evil Witch was so furious at the failure of her plan that she exploded into a thousand pieces.
Young children often enjoy bedtime stories, and it has become a traditional way to put their curious minds to rest. Besides making them go to bed with a smile, bedtime stories help their mental and social development in a very subtle yet powerful way.
