Home › Music › Christmas Music › Santa’s Big Red Sack (to the tune of Mary Had a Little Lamb)
Christmas piano sheet music · Kids
Santa’s Big Red Sack (to the tune of Mary Had a Little Lamb)
Free Christmas piano music for kids: 8 bars, right hand only. Put your thumb on middle C and one finger on each key; the number above each note is the finger, the letter under it is the key. Press Play to hear how it goes, press Slower to follow along, and print it for the music stand.
Where your hand goes
Find middle C: the white key just to the left of the two black keys nearest the middle of the piano. Put your right thumb on it and rest one finger on each white key going up, so your fingers 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 sit on C, D, E, F and G.
This piece uses 4 notes: C, D, E, G. In the music, the number above each note tells you the finger and the letter under it tells you the key. Your hand never has to move.
About this arrangement
Four notes this time: C, D, E and G, with your thumb on middle C. Start on E with finger 3. The tune rocks down to C and back up, then “big red sack” stays on one key. The third “big red sack” jumps from E up to G with finger 5, skipping F. Count four in every bar: the filled-in notes (crotchets) get one count, the hollow minims get two, and the last C, a semibreve (whole note), gets four. It is the tune of Mary Had a Little Lamb, note for note.
Practice tip: Finger 4 gets a rest in this song, because F is never played. Let it float just above its key. Before the jump in the fourth bar, get finger 5 ready over G so the jump is easy.
The words
Santa has a big red sack, big red sack, big red sack, Santa has a big red sack, it’s full of toys for you!
A short history
The tune is the one used today for Mary Had a Little Lamb. Sarah Josepha Hale, a Boston writer and editor, published the poem in 1830, and the music teacher Lowell Mason set it to music in 1831, but his tune was a different one. The melody everyone knows now, with its repeated “little lamb, little lamb”, is a 19th-century American tune also sung as “Merrily We Roll Along” and as the chorus of “Goodnight, Ladies”.
The first lines of the poem were the first words Thomas Edison recorded on his new phonograph, in 1877.
The Christmas words here are new, written by Digital Greenhouse in 2026 for small children. A tune children already know makes a good first piece, and a sack full of presents seemed more seasonal than a lamb.
Quick facts
- Tune
- Traditional (American, 19th century; the tune of Merrily We Roll Along)
- Words
- Digital Greenhouse, 2026 (new words)
- Level
- Kids (a handful of notes, right hand only)
- Key
- C position (right thumb on middle C)
- Time signature
- 4/4
- Length
- 8 bars
- Tempo
- Brightly, crotchet = 108
- Hands
- Right hand only: thumb on middle C, one finger for each key; the finger number is above every note and the letter name under it
- Copyright
- Public domain tune and words; arrangement by Digital Greenhouse, free for personal, church and classroom use
Questions and answers
What level is this arrangement of Santa’s Big Red Sack (to the tune of Mary Had a Little Lamb)?
Is Santa’s Big Red Sack (to the tune of Mary Had a Little Lamb) out of copyright?
Any tips for a first go?
Can I print it?
← More kids Christmas pieces · All 24 Christmas pieces
🔒 Runs entirely in your browser: nothing is uploaded and no account is needed.