What kid doesn’t love staying up late, making s’mores and telling funny or sometimes scary campfire stories?<\/p>
If you’ve been charged with providing the group entertainment at your next campout, here’s a list of 22 campfire stories to help set the mood and get the nighttime fun started. The best part? There are campfire stories for kids of all ages.<\/p>
In this legendary “Chipmunk and Bear<\/a>” tale your kids will love from Ultimate Camp Resource<\/a>, Chipmunk challenges Bear to stop the sun from rising. When Bear fails, he takes his anger out on the smaller animal, which explains how the chipmunk got its stripes.<\/p> This rhyming “Ballad of Johnny O’Dell<\/a>” verse from Boy Scout Trail<\/a> is a fast-paced tale of a fearless Pony Express rider, and kids will enjoy the unexpected funny ending.<\/p> Children will love “How Bear Lost His Tail<\/a>,” a clever Ojibwe legend shared by University of Wisconsin Oshkosh<\/a>, describing how Otter outsmarts Bear into using his tail as a fishing rod. When the sun sets, Bear finds his tail frozen and is forced to leave it behind.<\/p> On Native Languages of the Americas<\/a>, you can learn “The Hunting of the Great Bear,<\/a>” the Iroquois legend of the Big Dipper, in which four hunters chase a magical bear into the sky, only to become trapped forever in the heavens. Show your kids the Big Dipper as you retell this legend around the campfire.<\/p> Recount this chilling poem — “The Cremation of Sam McGee<\/a>” by Robert W. Service — via Poetry Foundation<\/a>, for your campers about a man who agrees to carry out Sam McGee’s dying wish, only to find a hauntingly surprising result.<\/p> “The Broom Town Curse<\/a>” is a very scary story found on Camping With Gus<\/a> that can be adapted to your specific location, which will make it even spookier (and more fun!) for your kids.<\/p> A tale of a woman brought back from the dead, “The Lady With the Emerald Ring<\/a>” from U.S. Scouts<\/a> is a little scary for a moment, but it’s brief! Kids will delight in the happy ending. <\/p> This short story “Creak<\/a>” from Ultimate Camp Resource<\/a> begins with a man alone in his noisy house and ends with a foregone scary conclusion. Perfect for dark nights around a fire.<\/p> The “Pink Jellybean<\/a>” story, found on Boy Scout Trail<\/a>, takes kids on a scary journey down a long, dark road in search of a hidden item. This story is all about constantly building the suspense — <\/b>and what camper doesn’t love that? For added surprise, you can shout, “a ghost!” instead of saying “a pink jellybean” at the end.<\/p> This well-loved Norwegian folktale, “Three Billy Goats Gruff<\/a>,” shared via AmericanLiterature.com<\/a>, is the story about three goats who meet a troll when trying to cross a bridge. The story has a little bit of suspense while never becoming too scary for your younger campers.<\/p> This camp version of Little Red Riding Hood — “Little Red Bandanna Hood<\/a>,” found via the Girl Scouts Butte blog<\/a> — points out the many helpful uses of a bandanna while out in the woods. Kids will love this new take a familiar tale.<\/p> In this folktale, “How Brother Rabbit Fooled the Whale and the Elephant<\/a>” from Kellscraft Studio<\/a>, clever brother rabbit foils the largest land and sea animals’ plans for world domination. And what better for your little ones than a story where the little guy triumphs?<\/p> Try this story starters grab bag<\/a> (with free printables!) from Cool Mom Picks<\/a> to let kids help you tell the story. The kids will love being in the role of storyteller, and this method of storytelling also allows you to weave a tale that’s appropriately scary or funny.<\/p> The Juliette Low story activity<\/a> on Scouting Web<\/a> may teach children about the founder of the Girl Scouts, but the format of these stories can also be customized for different groups. Your audience will love listening for certain words to come up in the story, which is their cue to respond with an action, such as making a sound or giving a salute.<\/p> This favorite “Going on a Bear Hunt<\/a>” story, via All Nursery Rhymes<\/a>, takes children on an interactive journey through nature toward finding a bear and then running back home to safety. Kids will love the different hand movements and sounds that accompany the story.<\/p> Let the kids provide the noises (they’ll love it!) as you tell this “Quiet Please<\/a>” camp story from MacScouter<\/a> about a quiet library in a quiet town that’s hit with a loud, chaotic mess.<\/p> Kids will love this funny “Gloop Maker<\/a>” story from Camping Dude<\/a> that recounts the story of a group of sailors who hire a gloop maker — only because no one wants to admit they don’t understand what he really does.<\/p> A boy is willing to do anything to win the smelly sneaker contest in this “Sneakers<\/a>” story from Ultimate Camp Source<\/a>. Your kids will be in for a surprise when he pays the price by losing his feet in the process.<\/p> Kids will love the punchline of “The Medicrin<\/a>” story from Camping Dude<\/a> about a hero who comes to save a village from a monster.<\/p> A man who moves into his great uncle’s house feels threatened by repeated calls from a creature calling himself the “Vinder Viper<\/a>” in this story from Boy Scout Trail<\/a>. Can your kids guess the ending?<\/p> This short story, “The Ghost of the Bloody Finger<\/a>” from The Camping Family<\/a>, gets progressively scarier, but the punchline is cute and funny.<\/p> This “Purple Gorilla<\/a>” story from Camping Dude<\/a> may start out scary, but the ending is sure to make your kids laugh!<\/p> Originally written by Jennifer A. DiGiovanni.<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Need a campfire story for your weekend away? From spooky and ghostly to straight-up funny and giggle inducing, our list has something for everyone.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1273,"featured_media":7036,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"enable_toc":false,"care_reviewed_by":0,"care_post_updated_flag":false,"care_updated_date":"2025-08-28T10:53:45.969Z","last_update":"2025-08-28","view_count":304639,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1080,1114],"member-type":[4],"vertical":[6,17,12],"platform":[2],"class_list":["post-594","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-school-aged-kids","tag-summer","member-type-all","vertical-children","vertical-child-care-advice","vertical-holidays-seasons","platform-resources"],"acf":[],"created":"2015-08-13","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.care.com\/c\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/594","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.care.com\/c\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.care.com\/c\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.care.com\/c\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1273"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.care.com\/c\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=594"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.care.com\/c\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/594\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":221539,"href":"https:\/\/www.care.com\/c\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/594\/revisions\/221539"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.care.com\/c\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7036"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.care.com\/c\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.care.com\/c\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.care.com\/c\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=594"},{"taxonomy":"member-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.care.com\/c\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/member-type?post=594"},{"taxonomy":"vertical","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.care.com\/c\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/vertical?post=594"},{"taxonomy":"platform","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.care.com\/c\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/platform?post=594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}2. “Ballad of Johnny O’Dell”<\/h3>
3. “How Bear Lost His Tail”<\/h3>
4. “The Hunting of the Great Bear”<\/h3>
Scary campfire stories<\/h2>
5. “The Cremation of Sam McGee”<\/h3>
6. “The Broom Town Curse”<\/h3>
7. “The Lady With the Emerald Ring”<\/h3>
8. “Creak”<\/h3>
9. “Pink Jellybean”<\/h3>
Campfire stories for kids on the younger side<\/h2>
10. “Three Billy Goats Gruff”<\/h3>
11. “Little Red Bandanna Hood”<\/h3>
12. “How Brother Rabbit Fooled the Whale and the Elephant”<\/h3>
Interactive campfire stories<\/h2>
13. Make your own story<\/h3>
14. Juliette Low action stories<\/h3>
15. “Going on a Bear Hunt”<\/h3>
16. “Quiet Please”<\/h3>
Funny campfire stories<\/h2>
17. “Gloop Maker”<\/h3>
18. “Sneakers”<\/h3>
19. “The Medicrin”<\/h3>
20. “Vinder Viper”<\/h3>
21. “The Ghost of the Bloody Finger”<\/h3>
22. “Purple Gorilla”<\/h3>