When we were children, one of my favorite traditions was gathering around the Christmas tree every night, starting on December 1st, to listen to our vinyl record of The Cinnamon Bear. I don’t know if my sisters were as enthralled by it as I was, but I wanted to share it with you, in case it will become a family favorite of yours…or in case you’ve been searching for it all these years.
The Cinnamon Bear is a story about Judy and Jimmy Barton and the Cinnamon Bear and their adventures in Maybeland as they search for their beloved silver star that belongs on the top of their Christmas tree. They meet the Crazyquilt Dragon, fly over the Rootbeer Ocean and Looking Glass Valley, get captured by the Inkaboos, and get trapped in a picture by the Wintergreen Witch with Fe Fo the giant, among many other adventures.
The Cinnamon Bear was broadcast for the first time on Thanksgiving Day, 1937. It was broadcast 6 days a week between Thanksgiving and Christmas. (We always start it on December 1st and listen to it 7 days a week, instead.) I love what was written in the newspaper in 1937 when introducing the broadcast of the Cinnamon Bear:
“Don’t miss his exciting adventures with Judy and Jimmy (two of the nicest playmates you could want!) over the air every night but Saturday! Early-to-bedders can listen at 6 and stay-up-laters at 7… and some nights you’ll be so anxious to hear how they got the Silver Star back from the wicked Crazyquilt Dragon that you’ll listen twice!”
Doesn’t that just sound straight from the 1930s?
If you’d like to start (or re-start) this tradition with your family, you can listen to each episode online! Just go to this link and click on each episode! There are 26, so you’ll need to do a little catching up here and there.
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I live in Portland, OR and the river cruise company here has turned the Cinnamon Bear story into a children’s book and do Cinnamon Bear themed cruises every December. You can even buy the radio series on a disc set in their on-line gift shop. http://www.portlandspirit.com It has been a tradition in my family for years!
That is AWESOME! I wish we could see it!
We have the CDs of The Cinnamon Bear and my kids love it every year. Well, the teenagers have grown out of it, but they remember it with fondness as long as the younger ones don’t make them listen to it over and over again when we’re all together in the car. So glad to find it’s conveniently online now.