Bedtime stories for kids: five five-minute stories set in Stockholm

Five short bedtime stories for children aged 3 to 7, written to be read aloud in five minutes. They are all set in and around Stockholm, they all end calmly, and they can all be changed so that they happen exactly where you live.

There is no end of storybooks, but there are evenings when the book is missing, the train is late or your child simply wants a story about our cat. These five are written for those evenings. They are short, they happen in places Stockholm children recognise, and they end the way a bedtime story should: with everyone asleep.

The story of Måns who did not want to sleep

Once upon a time there was a cat called Måns who lived in a flat on the third floor, right at the top of a yellow house. Måns had everything a cat could wish for: a basket by the radiator, a windowsill with a view of the courtyard, and a girl called Ellen who stroked him every evening.

But Måns did not want to sleep. Every evening, once Ellen had fallen asleep, he sat in the window and looked out. Out there it was dark, and in the dark, things moved. A hedgehog crossing the lawn. A seagull sitting on a lamp post looking important. The moon, which was a little different every evening.

One night Måns opened the window, because he had worked out how the latch worked, and climbed out onto the roof. Another cat was already sitting there, a grey one with a white patch on its nose. Oh, said the grey cat. You are one of those too. One of those who doesn't want to sleep, said Måns. That's right, said the grey cat. There are lots of us. And the grey cat showed Måns the whole night: the rooftops, the chimneys, the alley where the baker started baking at four o'clock and it smelled of bread.

When the sun came up, Måns was so tired he could barely climb back in. He crept into the basket by the radiator and slept all day. And when Ellen came home from förskola (municipal preschool, from age one) and stroked him, he purred so loudly that she laughed. What have you been doing today, Måns? she asked. But he never told her. It was his and the grey cat's secret.

And now you are going to sleep too. Because tomorrow is a new day, and who knows what will happen then.

The story of the troll under Liljeholmsbron

Under one of the bridges in Stockholm, where the tunnelbana (the metro) crosses the water, there lived a little troll. It was not a dangerous troll. It was a shy troll called Pim, who collected things people dropped from the bridge: a mitten, a key, a coin, a teddy bear a little boy had dropped from his pram.

Pim laid all the things in rows on a shelf under the bridge and looked at them in the evenings. But one thing made him sad: the teddy bear. It looked so lonely. And Pim knew that somewhere there was a boy who could not sleep because his teddy was gone.

So one night Pim tucked the teddy under his arm and climbed up onto the bridge. He walked along the tracks, because the tunnelbana had stopped running, and he followed the scent of the boy, because trolls can do that. The scent led him to a house in Midsommarkransen, up three flights of stairs, in through a window that stood ajar.

The boy lay in his bed with his eyes open. Pim crept forward, laid the teddy beside him and turned to go. But the boy had seen him. Thank you, the boy whispered. Pim stopped. Nobody had ever said thank you to him. It was nothing, said Pim, and he blushed so much that he glowed a little in the dark. Then he climbed out through the window and went home to his bridge.

These days, if you stand on Liljeholmsbron and drop something, you know who has it. And if you say thank you out loud, very quietly, he hears it.

The story of the little tram that wanted to go to Djurgården

In a big depot in Stockholm lived the trams. They were blue and long, and in the daytime they carried people back and forth across the city. The very smallest tram was called Sjuan, which means number seven, because there was a seven on her front, and she had never been allowed to drive the finest line of all: the one that ran out to Djurgården, past Gröna Lund and Skansen, where the children sat by the windows and pointed.

You are too small, said the big trams. The Djurgården line is for us. And Sjuan drove her little loops around the city centre and sighed so that her doors hissed.

One Saturday in July the biggest tram broke down. Right at Nybroplan, with a hundred children on their way to Gröna Lund. The children stood on the platform and looked at each other anxiously. Then along came Sjuan, rolling up. She was small, but she was in one piece. Hop in, she said, and the children hopped in and sat down by the windows.

And Sjuan drove. Past Nordiska museet with its great tower, past Vasamuseet, past Junibacken where Pippi lives. The children pointed and laughed, and Sjuan drove as smoothly as she could, without a single jolt. When she stopped at Gröna Lund, the children clapped their hands.

Since that day, Sjuan gets to drive the Djurgården line every Saturday. And if you ride with her on a summer's day and sit right at the front, you might just feel that she is a little extra proud right there, at Nybroplan, where it all began.

The story of the cloud that could not rain

High above Stockholm lived a little cloud. All the other clouds could rain. They gathered themselves together, grew dark and heavy, and then they rained over the city so that the flowers in the parks could drink and the puddles filled up for the children to jump in.

But the little cloud could not rain. However hard it tried, it just stayed light and fluffy and drifted away. The other clouds laughed. You are no real rain cloud, they said. You are just a white puff.

The little cloud drifted off over Hagaparken, feeling sad. Down below, a girl lay in the grass looking up. Look, she said to her dad, that cloud looks like a rabbit. Her dad looked. It really does, he said. And with a bit of imagination, it looks like a rabbit eating a carrot.

The little cloud heard that. And it stretched itself a little, so that the ears became clearer. The girl laughed. Now it's a rabbit with a hat! she shouted. And the cloud made a hat. And then a boat. And then an elephant, and a crocodile, and a heart.

The girl and her dad lay in the grass a whole afternoon, watching. And the little cloud understood that it did not need to rain. There were clouds that watered the flowers, and there were clouds that made children laugh. It was the second kind. If you look up on a summer's day and see a rabbit up there, you know who it is.

The story of the bear who was going to sleep all winter

In a forest far north of Stockholm lived a young bear called Bruno. It was his first autumn, and his mother said: Now, Bruno, we are going to eat as much as we can, and then we are going to sleep. All winter. Until spring.

All winter? said Bruno. But what if I miss something! What if it snows, and I never get to see snow! And Bruno decided not to sleep.

He ate the berries and the roots and the last of the honey, but when his mother crawled into the den and fell asleep, Bruno stayed sitting outside. He waited. It grew colder. The leaves fell. And one night the snow came, silent and white and soft, and settled over the whole forest.

Bruno ran out into it. He rolled in it, he ate it, he made tracks in it and looked at them. Snow! It was the finest thing he had ever seen. He played until his paws were cold and his eyes were heavy, and then he went into the den, crept in beside his mother, who only mumbled something in her sleep, and fell asleep.

And he slept until spring. But he had seen the snow. And every winter since then, he wakes up for one single night, just to look. So now you know: if you see a bear's tracks in the snow one winter night, that was Bruno. He just went out to look for a bit. Exactly like you want to do now. But now we sleep.

How to tell a story that sends your child to sleep

• Lower your voice gradually. Start in your normal voice, finish almost in a whisper.
• Switch to your child's world. The cat has the same name as your cat, the bridge is the one you cross on the way to förskola.
• No surprises at the end. Excitement in the middle, calm at the end. Always.
• The same story again is right. A child who wants to hear Måns for the twentieth time is practising language and security at the same time.
• Finish with a sentence about sleeping. All the stories here do. That is no coincidence.

How our nannies do it

Nannies who work evenings read stories every session, and most have one of their own they know by heart. The lovely thing about having the same nanny every time is that the story can continue: Måns can have a new adventure next Tuesday, and your child can decide what happens. We have seen three-year-olds keep the same story going for six months.

Read more: Evening and overnight babysitting · 100 riddles for kids with answers, sorted by age · Things to do with kids in Stockholm

Frequently asked questions

How long should a bedtime story be?

Five to ten minutes. Any longer and the adult falls asleep first. The stories here take five minutes each at a calm pace.

How do you make up your own stories?

Take something your child knows, like the cat, the tram or the bridge you cross, give it a wish and a small problem, and let it work out in a kind way. Children do not want surprises at bedtime; they want everything to turn out all right.

What age are the stories for?

Roughly three to seven. Three-year-olds want the same story every night, seven-year-olds want a new one. Both are perfectly normal.

Can you change the story?

Yes, change the cat's name to your own pet's and the bridge to the one near where you live. Children love stories that happen where they live themselves.