What’s more fun than sitting around a campfire and telling tales. These Campfire Tale Cards will get your imagination flowing and help you create some spooky tales of your own.
Campfire Tale Cards
How to play: Sit in a circle around a campfire with friends. The first player will draw a card and begin the story. Set a 3 minute timer. When the timer goes off, the person to the right of that player will draw a card and take over the story, using the card drawn as a prompt for a twist. Continue setting a 3 minute timer for each player until you run out of cards. The person who draws the last card will choose the story’s ending.
If you need more inspiration, check out these kid friendly campfire tales from KOA.COM.
DEM BONES
If your kids are fans of pirates, they are going to love this spooky Dem Bones story.
It tells the story of the famous Captain Kidd and his pirates who bury their stolen booty off the coast of New Jersey, and the people that witness this burial.
This story is scary enough to get your little ones looking behind their shoulders, but not enough to send them into a fury of screams.
COW’S HEAD
Similar to the tale of Cinderella, Cow’s Head begins with a daughter, Oksana, whose father is married to an awful stepmother with an equally awful daughter.
Times get tough, and there isn’t enough money to feed the family of four. The stepmother suggests sending Oksana away to the woods to fend for herself, and her father agrees.
Oksana is able to survive on her own, and one night, is awoken by a knock at her cabin door. She opens the door to a spirit — a cow’s head, to be exact. The cow demands hospitality from Oksana, and you’ll have to read the story to find out the rest.
There’s a good lesson to be learned here, with a bit of spook mixed in.
HAUNTED
Looking to recover an overly scary story with something a bit more mild? Haunted is the perfect one. This tells the story of ghosts who love to bake and dance the night away.
When a family moves into the home, they struggle with these noisy ghosts, and find a happy way to get rid of the haunts forever.
YELLOW RIBBON
This campfire tale leans a bit more to the creepy side that won’t make your kids scream, but will likely give them (okay, maybe just us) goosebumps.
Yellow Ribbon follows the story of a young couple, Jane and Johnny as they fall in love. But for some reason, Jane always wears a yellow ribbon around her neck, and always evades answering why whenever Johnny asks.
Finally, their love grows and they marry and have kids. Jane falls sick and, while on her deathbed, finally tells Johnny he can untie the ribbon.
What he finds when he does will surprise the daylights out of you and your kids.
THE SCARECROW
Let your kids be the judge of whether this scarecrow was taken by the storm, or ran away on his own.
This one is fun to tell in the first-person, and will keep your kids feeling spooked after the story is over.
But don’t worry, this isn’t a story they should lose sleep over.
THE HAIRY TOE
Though certainly strange, this story is a fun one that isn’t going to scare your little ones too much. It is about an old woman who finds a hairy toe in the woods near her home, and decides to eat it.
Our question, after hearing the story remains — why did she eat the toe in the first place?
We don’t have an answer to that, but do know that your kids will enjoy the fantasy aspects of this campfire story.
THE LADY WITH THE EMERALD RING
This strange story of love brings a woman back from the dead, all thanks to her husband’s greed.
Quick and scary for a moment, but with a happy ending, your kids will have fun listening to The Lady With the Emerald Ring.
GHOST SHIP OF CAPTAIN SANDOVATE
Another one for the pirate lovers in your group, the Ghost Ship of Captain Sandovate tells the tale of a group of sailors who mutiny, and end up dehydrating their captain to death — they refused to give him the water he needed to survive.
Under the guise of the new captain, a terrible storm took place that sunk the ship, and it is said that the ghost ship travels throughout the Atlantic, its sailors begging for water.
This story has some good morals in it, and won’t scare your kiddos too much.
FIFTY-CENT PIECE
An eerie feeling will come across you and your kids when hearing this story.
A man and a woman were traveling home via carriage, when they realized they had to stop for the night. They stopped at a house in the woods where a nice man and his wife welcomed them in to stay.
In the morning, the travelers left on their journey, and left a fifty-cent piece on the kitchen table as a thank you. When they got to the next town to eat lunch, they discover something very spooky.
This story will keep your kids on the edge of their seat, but not keep them awake all night.
GOLDEN HAND
The greedy man in this story will serve as a great scare, as well as a great lesson for your kids.
The man of the Golden Hand finds himself trying to court the widower who lost her hand, and replaced it with a golden one. He is finally successful, and marries her, then immediately begins poisoning her in order to have the golden hand to himself.
He is successful in killing her and does get her golden hand, but pays a big price for it.
THE HOOK
This classic story about two lovers will have your kids scared, no doubt.
A girl and her boyfriend take a trip down Lover’s Lane for a little late-night kissing, and keep hearing warnings on the radio about a man that escaped the mental asylum who has a hook for a hand. The stories scare the girl, and as she’s trying to convince her boyfriend to take her home, they feel the car shake.
They don’t see anything, and head on home. What they find out when they arrive will have your kids screaming (but not too much).
Here’s 10 more spooky examples to get a great campfire tale started!
Download your Campfire Tale Cards before they are gone.
Learn More
If you are interested, make sure to check out the Homesteaders section on Amazon. Here, you can find books and guides on how to easily homestead and tips on how to do it better.