Stories in Sand

June 1 - August 31

Sand Sculptures in the Village:

Stories in Sand

Celebrate summer vibes with larger-than-life sand sculptures that celebrate favorite stories!

Free and open to the public from June 1 through August 31, Stories in Sand will showcase six exceptionally tall sculptures created by three world-renowned master sand sculptors – from 330 tons of sand! The spectacular sculptures, all of which are due to be completed by June 9, will pay homage to stories and characters revered for generations: Brothers Grimm fairy tales, Peter Pan, The Jungle Book, Winnie-the-Pooh, Mother Goose stories, and Alice in Wonderland. Sandboxes designed for family play will also be placed throughout the property. Stories in Sand is funded in part by the Bucks County Tourism Grant Program.

Click here for more about the sculptures and artists!

Storytime Saturdays

Saturdays at 11 a.m.
Each Saturday at 11 a.m., join us on the Village Green for a FREE storytime session featuring a favorite children’s book! You are welcome to bring a blanket to sit on. Each Saturday Storytime will be hosted by one of our Village shops. Click here for schedule.

Winnie-the-Pooh Family Brunch

Sunday, August 13
Guests of all ages are invited to a bountiful brunch featuring storybook characters and special entertainment! Reservations required. Click here for more details and tickets.

The Courtyard Giveaway

Visit any of the shops and restaurants in the Courtyard to enter a special summer-long giveaway!
One prize basket valued at $825 will be awarded in June, July, and August. Click here for details.

Stories in Sand Promotional Giveaway

When you book a summer stay at a Bucks County hotel, inn, or B&B, you can enter to win a future overnight stay at the Golden Plough Inn at Peddler’s Village, plus a $150 dinner gift card and breakfast for two at the Buttonwood Grill – a $450 value.

Book a stay at a Bucks County inn, hotel, or bed & breakfast in June, July, or August 2023, to be eligible to enter to win a gift certificate good for an overnight stay, a $150 dinner gift card, and breakfast for two by completing our online sweepstakes form. Just confirm your stay by entering which Bucks County lodging property you’re visiting this summer and when, and you’ll be in the running for a fun-filled getaway at Peddler’s Village. Two winners will be selected at random each month (June, July, and August) for a total of six winners. Black-out dates apply. Enter Now

Sand Sculpture Descriptions

Inspired by French fairy tales and English nursery rhymes

Created by The Sand Sculpture Company

Nursery rhymes stimulate imagination and help young children to develop literacy and problem-solving skills. Nursery rhymes such as “Humpty Dumpty,” “Hickory Dickory Dock,” and “Hey Diddle Diddle,” have been recited by families and children for many generations.

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,

Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
All the king’s horses and all the king’s men
Couldn’t put Humpty together again.

Hickory dickory dock.

The mouse went up the clock
The clock struck one. The mouse went down
Hickory dickory dock

Hey diddle diddle,

The Cat and the fiddle,
The Cow jumped over the moon,
The little Dog laughed to see such sport,
And the Dish ran away with the Spoon

Old Mother Hubbard

Went to the Cupboard,
To give the poor Dog a bone;
When she came there,
The Cupboard was bare,
And so the poor Dog had none.

There was an Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe

There was an old woman who lived in a shoe.
She had so many children, she didn’t know what to do.

For kids

  • Who is your favorite nursery rhyme character?
  • What do you think the mouse in Hickory Dickory Dock did at two o’clock?

Inspired by Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll (1865)

Created by The Sand Sculpture Company

Down the rabbit-hole…

Alice went, after a White Rabbit with a pocket watch, down down down, would the fall never come to an end? She awakes in a room with a table and a key to a tiny door that she is too large to enter.  This mystical world is full of human-like creatures with magical potions that shrink her to the size of a mouse and grow her to enormous heights. Alice meets a variety of animals with big personalities, including the grinning Cheshire Cat and the Caterpillar, before joining the Hatter and March Hare for a rather strange tea party. Shrinking, then growing, and shrinking once again, Alice enters a beautiful garden that is, in fact, not a garden after all, but the Queen of Hearts’ croquet court with living playing cards, flamingo mallets, and hedgehog croquet balls. The short-tempered Queen of Hearts threatens to put Alice to death, but Alice grows once more, declaring moments before waking up that her guards were just a deck of cards—for it was all just a dream.

For kids

  • What is your favorite dream?
  • Would you rather be very small like a mouse or very tall like a giraffe?

Inspired by characters created in a series of stories by J.M. Barrie (starting in 1902)

Created by Team Sandtastic

All children, except one, grow up.

A boy who can fly and never grow old, Peter Pan spends his never-ending childhood with fairies, pirates, mischievous characters such as Captain Hook and Mr. Smee, and his best friend, Tinker Bell, showing ordinary children around the world that it’s okay to be themselves. Neverland is a special place, a magical and unique experience for each child who visits. Following their adventures in Neverland, Peter and the children defeat Captain Hook aboard a pirate ship docked in crocodile-infested waters before safely returning to London, flying through midnight skies with the help of Tinker Bell’s magical fairy dust. Was it real, was it a dream? Gaze out your bedroom window for a pirate ship docked amongst the clouds, because dreams do come true, if only we wish hard enough.

For kids

  • Would you prefer to live as a child always or to live as a grown-up too someday?
  • If you could fly, where would you go?

Inspired by Winnie-the-Pooh by A. A. Milne and E.H. Shepard (1926)

This sand sculpture is sponsored by Sticky Situations

Created by Sand Sculptures by John Gowdy

In the middle of the forest, and in the middle of this place was a large oak tree.

Buzzing, buzzing! With the sound of bees, Winnie-the-Pooh’s ears perk up. Bees mean honey, and honey is Pooh’s favorite—though his taste for honey often lands him in “Sticky Situations.”  In the Hundred Acre Wood, Pooh and his beloved friends set off on fun adventures. Cheerful, compassionate, and wise Christopher Robin, and Piglet, who is cautious and anxious but a most loyal friend, are Pooh’s closest companions. Happy-go-lucky Tigger might be a little irresponsible, but his heart is always in the right place. The irritable Rabbit, who believes himself to be the smartest animal in the Wood, still manages to care deeply for those around him. Eeyore, the beloved yet ever-glum donkeywhose tail often comes undone from his bottom, is always willing to find solutions to everyday problems. Together, the friends are unstoppable, for a day without a friend is like a pot without a single drop of honey left inside.

And so, we encourage you to channel your inner Pooh and sample his favorite ‘hunny’ at Sticky Situations.

For kids

  • What food do you like as much as Winnie-the-Pooh likes honey?
  • What is a problem that you recently solved and how did you do it?

Inspired by fairy tales collected and shared by multiple sources, including the Brothers Grimm in 1812

Created by Sand Sculptures by John Gowdy

Fee-fi-fo-fum! A long, long time ago, Jack, a poor country boy, traded a family cow for a handful of magical beans. The beans, once planted, sprouted into an enormous beanstalk that reached the sky. Curious, Jack climbed up the towering beanstalk and was greeted by an unfriendly giant. The boy outsmarted the giant and discovered goods once stolen from his family, including gold, an enchanted goose, and a magical harp. Jack quickly climbed down the beanstalk, chopped it down, and never saw the giant again.

Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair! A husband and his pregnant wife, who lived in a beautiful house near a bewitched garden, were patiently waiting for their daughter to be born. The husband heard his wife’s wish for a piece of fruit from the garden, and quickly took a rampion, a small orange fruit, while the witch peered beyond a few bushes. Unhappy, the witch requested that their soon-to-be-born child be exchanged for the fruit. Once the daughter was born, the witch locked her up in the highest room of the tallest tower and named the young girl, who had long, glowing, magical hair, Rapunzel. One day, the witch left for the market, and, while waiting for the witch to return, Rapunzel sang beautiful songs out of a small window. A prince, walking in the nearby forests, heard her singing, and, after seeing the witch climb the tower using Rapunzel’s golden hair, he requested she do the same for him. Rapunzel and the prince soon fell in love and lived happily ever after.

Like “Jack and the Beanstalk,” “Rapunzel,” and other fairy tales, the story of “Cinderella” is an enchanting adventure. In a tiny kingdom, far, far away, lived a young woman whose journey to becoming Princess meant staying true to herself, for she knew that beauty came from within. Though she had a wicked stepmother, who brought with her two unpleasant daughters, Cinderella managed to remain a kind-hearted person, despite having been ordered to become a servant in her very own home. Across town, the King decided to host an extravagant ball to help his son, the Prince, find a princess. Cinderella’s step-sisters dressed in billowing gowns while she, all alone, found a tattered dress once belonging to her mother. Tiny fluttering birds and doves that Cinderella had befriended beautified the dress with large bows and bountiful sashes, and, wearing a pair of special slippers, Cinderella was off to the ball. There, the Prince, in awe of the loveliest woman in all of the kingdom, danced with her all evening, and the two fell in love. But the hands of the clock were approaching midnight! Fearing her dress would become tattered once more, Cinderella rushed out of the castle, leaving a slipper behind. Holding the slipper, the Prince set off on a search through the kingdom for his one true love. When the Prince gently slid the slipper on Cinderella’s foot, it was a perfect fit. He’d found his Princess! They lived happily ever after.

For kids

  • Knowing that beauty comes from within, who do you know who is truly beautiful?
  • If you lived in a giant castle, what would your favorite room be?

Inspired by The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling (1894)

Created by Team Sandtastic

For the strength of the Pack is the Wolf, and the strength of the Wolf is the Pack. Mowgli, the young orphan boy raised by a wolf pack in the deep jungles of India, is urged by Bagheera, a panther, to return to his own people before Shere Khan, the tiger, returns to the jungle. This tiger despised humans – he feared their guns, fire, and destructive tendencies. But Mowgli is determined to stay. In the jungle, he encounters many dangerous animals, including a hungry python who nearly devours him the first chance he gets, and King Louie, an orangutan leader, who offers to trade Mowgli’s freedom for a lesson on making fire. Thankfully, Bagheera and a bear named Baloo find the young boy just in time. After many adventures involving the hungry python and the fierce tiger, Bagheera and Baloo soon realize that the jungle will never be a safe place for a human boy. Despite his unwillingness to leave the jungle, Mowgli notices a young human girl fetching water from a river and follows her to a nearby village. Mowgli soon embarks on a new journey, alongside his human friends, providing him the ability to move between two different worlds, to the friends and family he has grown to love. He realizes true friends will forever be by his side.

For kids

  • What is your favorite jungle animal?
  • If you lived in a jungle for a few weeks, what would you miss most from home?
See Master Sand Sculptures at work!

Each sand sculpture takes about 125 hours to build! Through June 9, Peddler’s Village guests will have the opportunity to watch sand sculpting teams as they create magnificent sand sculptures throughout Peddler’s Village.

All of these teams participated also in last year’s summer sand display at Peddler’s Village, Bucks County Beach Days: Sand Sculptures in the Village.

About the Artists

The Sand Sculpture Company

Master Sand Sculptor Ted Seibert of Wisconsin and Charlie Beaulieu of Washington have discovered that sand sculpting is the ideal combination of art and sport. Ted, who was part of the team responsible for creating the sand sculpture for Peddler’s Village’s 30th anniversary in 1992 (and subsequently from 1997-1999), has helped set eight-world records. He is a World Champion, and holds titles as U.S. National and Canadian National Champion. Ted is the owner of The Sand Sculpture Company, and author of The Art of Sandcastling. The Sand Sculpture Company is a group of world-renowned artisans who were among the first to move this medium off the beach and into commercial complexes throughout the world. To date, SSC has created more than 600 professional sand sculptures in 35 countries, including in Kuwait, home of the world’s largest sculpture art park. SandSculpting.com

Sand Sculptures by John Gowdy 

Master Sand Sculptor John Gowdy, a retired fire fighter from the Atlantic City Fire Department, has been carving sand professionally for over 30 years. Working with his wife Laura, he has won many national, international, and world-class first-place awards in just about every master sand sculpture competition on the planet. His greatest and most-often won prize is ‘People’s Choice.’ “We love pleasing the people who look at our sand displays and experience an emotional feeling from them,” he says. Past clients include Pope Francis in the Vatican, the White House Commission on Remembrance, the Travel Channel, and more. JohnGowdy.com

Team Sandtastic: Pat Harsch, Dean Arscott, and Dan Belcher

Team Sandtastic is based out of Sarasota, Florida and creates 50 to 60 unique sculptures a year. With four full-time sculptors joined by associates from around the globe, they create high quality sand sculptures worldwide. With over 20 years of experience, Team Sandtastic has won first place at the American Sand Sculpting Festival, the Myrtle Beach Open, the Southeast U.S. Championships, and more. They hold the Guinness World Record for the tallest sandcastle ever handbuilt in under 100 man hours (28 ft. 7-1/4 in., 1998, Georgia Stone Mountain Park). They have taught a team-building program of professional sand sculpture at Walt Disney World’s Disney Institute, and continue to offer hands-on “Professional Sand Sculpture ClinicsSM.” Dan Belcher was part of the team responsible for creating the sand sculpture for Peddler’s Village’s 30th anniversary in 1992. TeamSandtastic.com

Thank you to our sponsors

Tag us (@peddlersvillage) in your photos on Instagram and Facebook! Happy strolling, dining, and shopping!
Peddler’s Village regularly photographs events held on its property and periodically publishes these photographs on its website and social media channels. Media outlets might also take photographs and/or videos that will be broadcast publicly. It is possible the published photos or videos could include you and/or family members. Attendance at our events implies permission for us and other entities to include you in any photographs shared on any public platforms, digital or otherwise. If you object to appearing in any photographs, please email info@peddlersvillage.com before you attend an event. Thank you.

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