Everyone probably remembers being a little kids and having our parents hand us a little bright red box of animal crackers to snack on. The box alone was fun, decorated with bright colored circus animals. After admiring the animals it would be time to rip the box open (no longer worried about the box, but anticipating what delicious little animal crackers were inside). You then would reach in and see what animals you had. Ripping one out you would proudly declare to others around that you had a bear or a camel. It was now time to bite off the head of the cracker and giggle like all little kids do because they find it funny that they now have a headless animal cracker. Many memories are made while eating animal crackers. Shaping baked goods into little animal shapes was thought to be a popular Christmas tradition in medieval Germany. These treats would often be used as Christmas decorations and were highly thought of. By the nineteenth century animal shaped cookies started to be produced in factories and were very popular in England.
It was also during this time that animal crackers were shipped over to America from England where they were a huge hit and were soon being produced by American bakeries. The National Biscuit company (known as Nabisco today) was one company that produced these popular treats. In 1902 animal crackers became known as Barnum's Animal's and then started to take on the circus theme (from the Barnum and Bailey Circus). It was also during this year that the festive little red boxes were developed, before this they were only sold in the big containers and tins. These boxes however, were developed to be Christmas ornaments which is why they had a string attached to the top. These small snack size boxes were very popular and as you can tell caught on as they are still sold today, although back then each box was only 5 cents.
Animal crackers have been a huge hit for many years. They have featured 54 different animals including the tiger, camel, lion, rhinoceros, giraffe, and most recently the koala. Over 40 million packages of animal crackers are sold yearly in the United States and 17 other countries. No one can resist the yummy taste and fun time of eating a box of animal crackers. And who knows maybe they are even still used in some houses as fun Christmas tree decorations.
Info from:
http://www.foodtimeline.org/foodcookies.html#animal
http://www.foodreference.com/html/artanimalcrack.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_cracker#History
Picture from
http://starhilldesignstudio.com/starhillblog/?p=53
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