by Carie Moore
Last week we talked about zoos and farm animals. Today we’re going to focus on the circus, or rather the circus animals that became famous for being depicted on a box.
Animals crackers came from England in the late 1800s. By the very early 1900s they were called Barnum’s Animals because the box portrayed the Barnum and Bailey Circus theme. They were so popular that Nabisco began production here in the United States and added a string to the box. As a mom, I assumed the string was there so you could carry the small box on your finger along with a bottle, your coffee mug, car keys, and grocery bags. Turns out, the real reason for the string was to hang the box from the Christmas tree! Pretty cool.
With all the hype about circus animals, three years ago Nabisco set them free. Figuratively of course. The pictures of animals on the package are no longer depicted in cages on a train but free in nature.
Over the years, 53 animals have been featured. Currently being produced are the bear, bison, camel, cougar, elephant, giraffe, gorilla, hippopotamus, hyena, kangaroo, lion, monkey, rhinoceros, seal, sheep, tiger, and zebra. To celebrate its 100th anniversary, Barnum's added the koala in September 2002.
There are other manufactures of animal crackers as well, so the animals vary in shapes. Flavors like chocolate and iced are very common on the shelves as well.
A serving size is about 17 crackers depending on the brand, but they are a great snack for people of all ages to enjoy. They can also be added in with other items such as yogurt, cheese sticks, milk, or fruit slices to pack a more nutritional punch. They would also be a good substitution to a pie crust instead of graham crackers. Just saying. I hear a lot of you are baking right now!
Do you want to have a little fun with your animal crackers? Play Animal Cracker Bingo at snack time. Most brands of animal crackers have 13 different kinds of animals. To play bingo, everyone will need about two of every kind of animal. (Sounds a little familiar, doesn’t it?) Then they randomly place their animal crackers on their bingo card. As the animals are called, they take the correct cracker off the card and snack! The empty space represents the called animal. The first person to get a bingo wins! (Taken from National Day Calendar.)
Carie Moore is the District 4 NDFB Promotion and Education representative. She is a mom and farms near Rocklake. #NationalAnimalCrackerDay is Saturday, April 18