Punkinhead, "the sad little bear", was a rubbery toy bear with a tuft of unruly orange hair. He was designed and developed into a storybook character by

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

cartoonist A cartoonist is a visual artist who specializes in both drawing and writing cartoons (individual images) or comics (sequential images). Cartoonists differ from comics writers or comic book illustrators in that they produce both the literary and ...

Charles Thorson Charles "Charlie" Gustav Thorson (29 August 1890 – 7 August 1966) was a Canadian political cartoonist, character designer, children's book author and illustrator. Thorson is best known as the man who designed an early version of the then yet ...

. The bears were manufactured by

Merrythought Merrythought is a toy manufacturing company established in 1930 in the United Kingdom. The company specialises in soft toys, especially teddy bears. Merrythought has handmade traditional teddy bears in the World Heritage Site of Ironbridge, Shr ...

company. Punkinhead was the main character in a series of children's books published by the

T. Eaton Company The T. Eaton Company Limited, later known as Eaton's, was a Canadian department store chain that was once the largest in the country. It was founded in 1869 in Toronto by Timothy Eaton, an immigrant from what is now Northern Ireland. Eaton's grew ...

, a large department store in

Toronto, Ontario Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

. To promote the sale of the stuffed bear and the books, the store created a song about him and sold recordings of it. Punkinhead became associated with Eaton's Christmas advertising. In 1947, Punkinhead appeared in Toronto's

Santa Claus parade Santa Claus parades, also called Christmas parades, are parades held in some countries to celebrate the official opening of the Christmas season with the arrival of Santa Claus who always appears in the last float. The parades usually include them ...

. The character also appeared on many of Eaton's toys, accessories and clothing. Among them were kitchenware items such as bowls and mugs, furniture such as chairs and

rocking horse __NOTOC__ A rocking horse is a child's toy, usually shaped like a horse and mounted on rockers similar to a rocking chair. There are two sorts, the one where the horse part sits rigidly attached to a pair of curved rockers that are in contact wit ...

s, and clothing such as

toque A toque ( or ) is a type of hat with a narrow brim or no brim at all. Toques were popular from the 13th to the 16th century in Europe, especially France. The mode was revived in the 1930s. Now it is primarily known as the traditional headgear ...

s and mittens. The Punkinhead doll and books have become collectors' items.

Books

*''Punkinhead, the Sad Little Bear'' *''Punkinhead in Santa's Workshop'', 1950 *''Punkinhead and the Christmas Party'', 1952 *''Punkinhead and His Toy Workshop Adventure'', 1954 *''Punkinhead in Animal Valley'', 1955 *''Punkinhead and Jock the Jumper'', 1960

Books

References

Further reading