Starting November 4th, a massive gathering of huggable Christmas Red Bears can be seen and adopted at the Titanic Museum Attraction in Branson during the Christmas season!
Branson, Missouri (September 8, 2023) – Tomorrow (Saturday, September 9) is National Teddy Bear Day, which gives us the perfect reason to share news about some new arrivals coming to the Titanic Museum Attraction in the Ozark Mountain community of Branson, MO. Though “black bears” in these parts have fur in a variety of colors – black, brown, cinnamon and blond – for this year’s holiday season, the museum will welcome some incredibly rare red bears … of the stuffed variety.
These critters, who will appear among the holiday décor throughout the attraction from November 4 through December 31, are a reminder that this is the museum’s “Year of the Titanic Children.” A special exhibit highlights the 135 passengers and crew members who were age 15 or younger when the Titanic set sail, and dozens of artifacts share the very personal stories that demonstrate the lengths families went to in their attempts to protect their next generation. (Of the 135 young passengers, the ultimate outcome was evenly split: 67 survived, 68 perished.) The exhibit is the largest display of Titanic children’s artifacts ever assembled.
As the museum’s crew wondered how to mark the holiday season while also honoring the children aboard the Titanic, they decided to create a special collection of teddy bears (fun fact: a group of bears is called a “sloth” or “sleuth”) that visitors can spot amidst a forest of Christmas trees. Those trees are decorated in a manner that pays homage to the Edwardian era, named for the British ruler during the years the ship was built. At that exact same time, Theodore Roosevelt was president of the United States, and it’s for him that the “teddy” bear was named. Roosevelt, a celebrated hunter, refused to shoot a bear cub because – if legends are to be believed – he said he couldn’t have looked his son in the face again if he had.
The museum’s new bears are red to symbolize the love between parents and their children. The color makes them a little easier to spot amidst all the holiday décor … and certainly something to catch visitors’ eyes in the gift shop, where the fuzzy friends will be ready for adoption.
The goal of the museum has always been to provide a stimulating connection to history that families can experience together. Honoring the memories of all those aboard is at the core of what museum President and Co-owner Mary Kellogg envisioned when the Branson attraction opened in 2006, and that human (and bear) focus is what makes the Titanic Museum Attraction one of the most visited sites in Branson.
