Do You Like "Animal Crackers?"

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I haven’t seen a box of Animal Crackers in quite a while and so I’m wondering if they are still around. I know that Animal Crackers have been around for a long time, but I did a little research. What I found out is really interesting so I thought I would share it with you. First of all, the animal-shaped crackers are not an American invention. They were actually imported from England in the late 1800s. American bakeries began to make their own “circus crackers” in the shapes of different animals. By the end of the nineteenth century The National Biscuit Company (now Nabisco) was selling these “animal crackers” nationwide. Then in 1902 the circus-wagon boxes were introduced. The string handles on the boxes were for hanging them on Christmas trees and I learned that over 6,000 miles of string were used each year to make the boxes. At one point in time the company renamed the cookies “Barnum’s Animals” after the famous P.T. Barnum of circus fame and that’s when they started putting the cookies in a circus wagon box. I learned that 37 different animals were eventually included. About 40 million boxes of Animal Crackers were sold each year. And the baking process was interesting too. The cookies were baked on a conveyor belt that ran through a 300-foot-long oven and come out of the oven at the rate of 12,000 per minute. Wow! And YES, you can still buy animal crackers in the circus wagon box on Amazon for $1.59 a box. Check it out.