If you go down to the woods today… you’d better go prepared with our guide on hosting the perfect teddy bear’s picnic. It’s the most wholesome of childhood activities – so collect your kids’ favourite teddy bears and head to the woods or your favourite picnic spot to enjoy some classic sweet treats and fun activities.
Send out some teddy bear picnic invitations
Whether you’re celebrating someone’s birthday or just want an excuse to organise a teddy bear picnic, you’ll need to send out invitations, so everyone knows the all-important details.
Be mindful that the more invitations you send out, the more picnic blanket space will be filled. Although, as always, we believe the more the merrier and there’s no reason to be limited to one blanket!
At thortful, we’ve got our very own range of bear cards. From birthday cards to thank you cards, our independent card creators have made tons of adorable bear-themed designs. There are even some which could work wonderfully as a teddy bear picnic invitation!
Below, you can see just a few of the cards that we have on offer that will definitely help make someone’s day bear-y special:
Pack your favourite teddy bears
The stars of the whole event – what’s a teddy bear’s picnic without the teddy bears themselves? Help your kids choose who gets to attend the picnic.
Just make sure you have a list of all the bears that are taken so you can make sure everyone is accounted for when you leave! The last thing anyone wants is a teddy bear left behind.
Teddy bear picnic checklist
Aside from the obvious teddy bear as mentioned above, there are some other things you’re going to want to pack for the day.
To make your life as easy as possible, we’ve actually compiled a mini teddy bear picnic checklist that you can use to ensure you’ve got everything ready to go:
- A picnic blanket that will fit everyone and their cuddly friends
- Picnic food and drinks (we’ll delve more into that later on!)
- Plates, cups, and cutlery
- Napkins, plastic bags, and wipes to tidy up
- Any extras for activities or party games (again, we’ll be touching on this further down in the blog!)
- Something to play music on as well as a specially curated playlist for the day
Bring some classic teddy bear picnic food
Controversial take, but we reckon picnic food is the best kind of food. Who doesn’t love a picky lunch with plenty of classic British treats, sweets and snacks? A teddy bear’s picnic is no exception. While you might want to keep it simple for smaller kids with a pickier palate, the grown-ups at the party may want something a bit more substantial.
Some great teddy bear picnic food ideas are:
- Sandwiches (if you can find a teddy-bear shaped sandwich cutter, then even better!)
- Biscuits and cupcakes
- Plenty of sliced fruit or easy-to-pack fruit like tangerines
- Classic snack food like sausage rolls and pork pies
Feeling a little bit fancier? Why not get the whole family involved with baking some treats inspired by famous teddy bears?
Pooh bear honey cakes
One of the most-loved teddy bears is the lovely Winnie the Pooh from the Hundred Acre Wood. His habit of eating honey straight from the jar isn’t the most nutritious, so instead make these cute and easy honey cakes from My Healthy Dish!
Image credit: My Healthy Dish
Paddington’s marmalade loaf
Take inspiration from another famous and beloved teddy bear: Paddington Bear! If you don’t feel like eating Paddington’s favourite treat – pure marmalade sandwiches, from underneath his hat – then try this tasty recipe for marmalade loaf cake instead.
For the marmalade loaf:
- 120g softened unsalted butter
- 100g sugar
- 2 eggs
- 170g self-raising flour
- 3 tablespoons milk
- 3 tablespoons marmalade
- 1 orange, grated zest
For marmalade icing:
- 1 tablespoon marmalade
- 50g icing sugar
- 1 tablespoon water
Directions
- Preheat oven to 160°C, and line a loaf tin with baking parchment.
- Beat the butter and sugar together until combined and fluffy
- Beat in the eggs, and sift in half the flour. Add the milk, marmalade, orange zest and mix together, then pour into the loaf tin.
- Bake for 30-40 minutes, until golden brown and firm to the touch, or until a skewer or knife poked into the cake comes out clean.
- Leave to cool for 5 minutes in the tin, then turn out onto a wire rack to finish cooling.
Teddy bear’s picnic party ideas
Wondering what to do to keep everyone occupied during the picnic, or looking for some fun activities to do before or after the main event? Here are a few teddy bear’s picnic party ideas for things to do.
Go ‘in disguise’
As the words to the song say, ‘if you go down to the woods today, you’d better go in disguise’ – so remind the kids that they’ll need to be disguised as bears in order to blend in and join the picnic! Draw on a little black nose, and make or buy some teddy bear ears – Tea Time Monkeys has a great printable template for ear headbands.
Teddy bear singalong
Lead your picnic group in a singalong of the classic song ‘The Teddy Bear’s Picnic’! Did you know the song dates back to 1907? It might be a stretch for little ones to learn the whole song, so maybe just teach them the main chorus, or print out the lyrics so they can read along!
Teddy bear face paint
Get some face paints and paint everyone up like their favourite teddy bear. If your little one has a varied choice for teddy bears, you can really flex your creative muscles – think lions, tigers, plus bears (oh my). But even if you’re just sticking to bears, you’ve still got plenty of scope – Panda bear? Koala? Polar bear? Or just a classic brown bear? The only limit is, um, your ability to paint a recognisable bear face on a squirming child’s face using thick face paint. Good luck.
Read a teddy bear book
Take the teddy bear’s picnic as an opportunity for some good old fashioned reading time, with a classic bear-themed book. Here are a few suggestions for some teddy bear books we think would be a perfect pick at a teddy bear’s picnic:
- We’re Going on a Bear Hunt by Michael Rosen
- A Bear Called Paddington by Michael Bond
- Where’s My Teddy? by Jez Alborough
- Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Eric Carle
- Bear Wants More by Karma Wilson
- I Want My Hat Back by Jon Klassen
Fun teddy bear facts
Now to finish things off, we’ve found some teddy bear facts that you, and those at your teddy bear’s picnic, might find interesting:
- Teddy Bear Picnic Day is celebrated every year on July 10th.
- In 1995, Magellan T. Bear became the first official teddy bear flown into space.
- As of April 2019, the largest collection of teddy bears consisted of 20,367 items.
- The Guiness World Record for the largest teddy bear picnic included 33,573 people with their bears at Dublin Zoo in June 1995.
- According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the earliest evidence for ‘teddy bear’ is from 1906.
Pulling together these sorts of days for the kids can be tricky but worthwhile, and hopefully our teddy bear picnic ideas have helped you along the way. We’re sure it won’t be the last teddy bear picnic you end up organising either!
Perhaps this has all sounded so much fun that you want to do something similar with all your grown-up friends? Our blog on how to plan the perfect picnic has everything you need to know in order to enjoy an adults-only picnic.
Looking for more ideas for things to do with the kids? How about some fun spring crafts, or creative ideas for World Book Day costumes? For more DIYs and ideas, check out the rest of the thortful blog.
