Summer Celebration: The Teddy Bear Picnic

Today is Teddy Bear Picnic Day! That means it’s time to let your inner child out to breathe. Plan a picnic, have a tea party, adopt a new teddy bear from your neighborhood second-hand store, or just unwind with some teddy-worthy accessories and sweets.

It’s said that the teddy bear itself was designed in the first years of the 1900s, after a story about US president Theodore Roosevelt not shooting a bear while hunting was sensationalized by the media of the day. Some toy makers then began producing stuffed bears, naming them “Teddy” after the commander in chief. The apparent geniuses behind our fluffy friends? The Michtum family, whose then small toy shop eventually grew into the renowned Ideal Toy Company.

If you’re planning a teddy garden party for kids (or for your friends), teddy bear coloring sheets and bear hugging photo ops are great ideas. Or you could hand out party favors with teddy bear jewelry and gummy bears. Just be sure to put out some berries and honey on your sweet tray, two of the bear’s favorite guilty pleasures.