The Legend of the Tooth Pirate: An Original Tale

When my son was about to lose his first tooth, I had to make a decision. Tooth fairy or no tooth fairy? I wanted to make this important milestone fun and exciting for my boys. But the Tooth Fairy and all her glitter just wasn’t appealing to me, and my boys seemed to find it silly when I broached the subject. The Legend of the Tooth Pirate, then, came about fairly by accident.

“Keep an eye on that loose tooth,” I said, floating an idea that had been in the back of my mind for a few weeks. “When it comes out, the Tooth Pirate might nab it!”

The boys bit.

“Who’s the Tooth Pirate!?” they begged to know.

And so began The Legend of the Tooth Pirate. Which I decided to write out and share with you!

The Legend of the Tooth Pirate

Captain Pearl stood on the deck of his ship, the SS Smiley. He had sailed the Seven Seas for weeks, looking for sunken treasure in the deep waters. 

One day, he dove down deep below the water, in search of his hidden Oyster Bed where Captain Pearl raised lustrous pearls. But when he reached the sandy ocean floor, he saw row after row of open oyster shells, pink and bare. The pearls were gone!

“Who’s stolen my pearls!” Captain Pearl asked the Oyster Queen. 

She cried large, salty tears. “Oh, Captain! All our lovely pearls have been stolen!”

Captain Pearl comforted the Queen and promised to find a way to return the lovely treasures. But he didn’t know how he’d go about doing that!

As he continued to sail the world looking for treasures, he noticed a curious tradition among the children of the world. Every time they lost a tooth, they’d hide, bury it, or throw it on the roof. “Such strange customs!” he thought, turning the shiny white teeth over and over in his hand as he sat on a rooftop in South America. 

The moon shone off the pearly white tooth in his hand, giving him a brilliant idea! All these teeth were treasures discarded by children! He knew just the thing to do with them! Gathering as many pearly whites as he could find, he set sail back to the Oyster Bed. 

There, he carefully went from row to row between the oysters, placing a bright, white tooth into each open oyster. The oysters all closed their shells thankfully. 

Captain Pearl smiled, grateful the Oyster Bed was filled with pearly whites again. “Thank you, Captain Pearl!” the Oyster Queen sighed, closing her eyes to sleep in her sandy bed, content once more. 

Now, he sails the Seven Seas looking for more pearly white teeth to bring back to the Oyster Bed. And that’s how he became not just any old treasure-hunting pirate, but a Tooth Pirate!

Whenever he finds a child has just lost a tooth, he nabs it for his oysters, and leaves a treasure from his treasure chest in its place! He might leave money, a gem, a trinket, or even a coin from another land, since he’s such a world traveler! 

And there you have, the Legend of the Tooth Pirate! My boys enjoy hearing me make up details of the story as I go, so this isn’t even my original tale, but I can’t remember all the things I have made up about the Tooth Pirate.

It’s been fun inventing this legend for my boys! When they lose a tooth, I use my Leafcutter Tiny Mail kit to create a message from the Tooth Pirate and leave them a treasure:

Capt. Pearl of the S.S. Smiley has set sail again to trade his treasure for a pearly tooth. (I.e., he lost another tooth!) #toothfairy #toothpirate #makebelieve #tinymail @leafcutter

A photo posted by Julie Kieras (@juliekieras) on Jul 1, 2016 at 9:29pm PDT

The Tooth Pirate made a visit to collect a tooth for his ship, the S.S. Smiley, and leave a treasure as payment! The The #toothfairy is a really a pirate! #makebelieve #tinyletters Thanks, @leafcutter

A photo posted by Julie Kieras (@juliekieras) on Jun 27, 2016 at 4:56am PDT

You can invent your own family legend too for special occasions – find out how in my guest post over on the Melissa & Doug blog! (link to follow!).

This post is written in partnership with Melissa & Doug; I was not compensated for this post.