National Animal Crackers Day is on Sunday, April 18, 2027, and it falls on April 18 every year. It celebrates the small, lightly sweet crackers shaped like lions, camels and elephants. Kids have been biting the heads off first for more than a century.
When Is National Animal Crackers Day?
It’s always April 18. It’s an unofficial food day, mostly marked at home, in classrooms and on social media.
Who Started National Animal Crackers Day?
No founder or start year has been documented for the day.
Background: from England to Barnum’s Animals
Animal-shaped crackers came from England in the late 1800s. In 1902, the National Biscuit Company, now Nabisco, began selling them as “Barnum’s Animals,” named after the famous circus.
The box was designed to look like a circus train car and came with a string, so it could hang on a Christmas tree. It sold for 5 cents. Over the years, 54 different animals have appeared in the box, from bears and bison to koalas and hippos.
The 2018 redesign
For more than a century, the box showed animals behind cage bars. In 2018, Nabisco redesigned it to show a zebra, elephant, lion, giraffe and gorilla roaming free on a grassland. PETA had written to parent company Mondelez in 2016 asking for the change.
Why Celebrate Animal Crackers?
They’re one of America’s longest-running packaged snacks and a lunchbox staple for generations. Shirley Temple even sang “Animal Crackers in My Soup” in the 1935 film Curly Top.
The day is a chance to enjoy a nostalgic snack and turn it into a game, a lesson or a craft.
How to Celebrate National Animal Crackers Day
- Play animal-cracker zoo: sort a box by species and count how many of each you get.
- Frost them: dip crackers in melted pink or white candy coating and add sprinkles.
- Make a snack mix: toss them with pretzels, cereal and dried fruit.
- Bake your own: use animal cookie cutters on a simple graham or shortbread dough.
- Hang a box: use the original string idea to decorate a party or classroom.
- Watch Curly Top: the song is Shirley Temple’s first number in the film.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why does the animal crackers box have a string?
So it could hang on a Christmas tree. The circus-car box with a string was designed as a holiday ornament, and the string stayed.
Are animal crackers cookies or crackers?
Despite the name, they taste more like a lightly sweet cookie. The “cracker” name comes from their British roots, where “biscuits” and crackers overlap.
Why were the cages removed from the box?
After PETA’s 2016 request, Nabisco redesigned the box in 2018 to show animals in a natural habitat instead of circus cages.