April 18th - National Animal Crackers Day

Today is National Animal Cracker day, what a yummy day to celebrate. The thought of animal crackers instantaneously sparks memories of childhood. Maybe you enjoyed them at your grandma’s house or maybe you ate them after school. Animal crackers may have been a special treat you anticipated in your lunch box. No matter how you remember these cute little cookies, they are symbolic to the simple life most of us enjoyed as children. We were loved, we were happy, we were fearless, and we were pleasantly naive about the difficulties of life. Therefore we gladly commemorate the animal cracker.Animal crackers were imported from England to the United States in the late 1800s. They are crackers due to the way they are made, but pleasantly taste more like a cookie. At the time of their release, animal crackers retailed for five cents. Traditionally animal crackers are purchased in a charming little box resembling a circus cart, but did you know the handle was added during the holiday season so that the box could be hung on a Christmas tree.

In total, 54 different animals have been represented by animal crackers since 1902. The current crackers are tiger, cougar, camel, rhinoceros, kangaroo, hippopotamus, bison, lion, hyena, zebra, elephant, sheep, bear, gorilla, monkey, polar bear, seal and giraffe. To celebrate its 100th anniversary, Barnum's added the koala in September 2002. No one brought attention to the animal cracker quite like Shirley Temple. Here are the lyrics to Animal Crackers in my soup. Go ahead sing along and teach your children how to sing it too.

Animal Crackers In My Soup
Lyrics/Music T.Koehler & I.Caesar/R.Henderson

Once Mother said My little pet

You ought to learn your alphabet

So in my soup I used to get

All the letters of the alphabet

I learned them all from A to Z

And now my Mothers giving me

Animal crackers in my soup

Monkeys and rabbits loop the loop

Gosh oh gee but I have fun

Swallowing animals one by one I

n every bowl of soup I see

Lions and Tigers watching me

I make 'em jump right through a hoop

Those animal crackers in my soup

When I get hold of the big bad wolf

I just push him under to drown

Then I bite him in a million bits

And I gobble him right down

When their inside me where its dark

I walk around like Noah’s Arc

I stuff my tummy like a goop

With animal crackers in my soup

Animal crackers in my soup

Do funny things to me

They make me think my neighborhood

Is a big menagerie

For instance there's our Janitor

His name is Mr Klein

And when he Hollers at us kids

He reminds me of a Lion The Grocer is so big and fat

He has a big moustache

He looks just like a Walrus

Just before he takes a splash

Let the fun continue with this sweet animal cracker game.

Animal Cracker Charades
Materials: 1 Box of Animal.

Choose a child to pick out an animal cracker, make sure no one can see which animal is picked. Let the child eat the cracker. Once he or she eats the cracker they "become" they animal they ate. Encourage the child to pretend to be the animal by making motions and sounds similar to the animal. The other children must guess what animal it is. The person who guesses correctly is the next cracker eater.

If you don’t eat all of the animal crackers playing animal cracker charades, you can make these yummy snacks.

Chocolate PB Crackers

Ingredients:
1 box animal crackers
1 cup (or more to taste) peanut butter
1 (12 oz.) pkg. semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 tbsp. vegetable shortening

Directions:

1. Lay a sheet of wax paper put on the table.
2. Spread peanut butter on the top of each animal cracker and palce them on the wax paper.
3. Melt chocolate chips and shortening together in top of double boiler. Dip each cracker into the chocolate mixture. To keep the chocolate soft, leave it in the double boiler over low heat while you dip each candy.
4. Place candy on sheet to cool.

Animal Cracker Pie

Ingredients:
1/2 gallon Rocky road ice cream
One 9-inch graham cracker crust
1/4 cup hot fudge sauce; warmed
1/4 cup finely chopped walnuts
1 package Animal crackers

Directions:
1. Place individual scoops of ice cream into the pie crust, forming a mountain of ice cream (with the center scoop as the highest point).
2. Drizzle with hot fudge sauce and sprinkle with walnuts.
3. Place animal crackers on top of each scoop and serve immediately.

If not planning to serve right away, then place the ice cream scoops into the crust, cover loosely, and store in the freezer. Just before serving, drizzle with hot fudge sauce, sprinkle with walnuts, and place the animal crackers on each scoop.