Sophie later learned that the BFG ( Big Friendly Giant) was a dream collector.
She took him with her in the pale country where you can hear dreams sailing along.
“Where are we?” she asked.
“We is in Dream Country.” the BFG said. “This is where all dreams is beginning.”
It is not a rare occurrence for many of us to hear the sounds of little feet running down the hallway into our bedrooms, only to be greeted with a frightened voice saying “ I had a bad dream.”
What about the midnight holler? “Mom, Mom, I had a bad dream!” On such an occasion it is me whose big feet are running down the hallway.
Other children cannot find it in them to fall asleep for fear of a bad dream.
Many years ago I read Roald Dahl’s book The BFG to my children. Wouldn’t all of us wish for a giant who blows good dreams upon sleeping little children from his dream jar? Why couldn’t we wish for something so splendid? We might be short on BFG’s but I was sure that I could whip up something wonderful in the way of a dream jar.
Every night one or two dream wishes are written on a slip of paper and placed into the jar. At the end of the year we take all of our dream slips and place them in a clear jar with the year clearly marked on it. Placed on a shelf in the bookcase, our jar becomes a testament to great sleep and wonderful dream collecting.
Dream Jars
Materials
1 quart mason or canning jar with lid
1 sheet of tissue paper any color
Mod podge or other decoupage medium
Sponge brush
Assorted stickers and lettering
Paper cut into strips
Instructions
Rip the sheet of tissue paper into medium sized pieces.
Wrinkle all of the pieces of tissue paper after you’ve ripped them into the desired sizes.
With your sponge brush, brush one small section of the jar from the top to the bottom. Place tissue paper over the glued section.
Brush decoupage glue over the tissue paper.
Move on to the next section of the jar and repeat until the jar is completely finished. Let dry completely.
Once the jar is dry, place the letter stickers on one side of the jar to spell the word “dream.” On the back side of your jar put an assortment of stickers that make you happy.
Cut small strips of paper to leave beside your jar with a pen or pencil for nightly dream wishes.
Our children have such fond memories of making their dream jars. A few I’ve seen go off to college as “nostalgia” and others are still in active use. Our eldest daughter uses her dream jar to place her affirmations and life-list items. On the lid of her jar she has written, “To be read daily.”
For some of the children in this house “bad dreams” are a thing of the past but many a rainy afternoon sees them reading their collected dreams of years gone by.
If there’s anything I’ve learned it’s that we don’t need a big friendly giant to send us our good dreams. We can all become collectors of great dreams. Just be sure to share them wildly.
Here’s wishing you many happy and wonderful dreams!
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Amazon best-seller Valarie Budayr is author of The Fox Diaries: The Year the Foxes Came to Our Garden and The Ultimate Guide to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. She is the founder and owner of Audrey Press and Jump into a Book. Valarie lives in Tennessee with her husband and 3 children.
