Happy 100th birthday to the world’s most loveable teddy bear

July 24, 2026 — 4:00pm

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Happy 100th birthday, Winnie the Pooh. May your cake be full of honey. For you must be the most famous teddy bear in the world.

Actually, nobody can agree exactly when your birthday is. For some it’s August 2, 1921, when Christopher Robin got his teddy bear as a birthday present. He named him Winnie the Pooh and they became inseparable friends.

For others, the date is Christmas Eve, 1925, when the first Pooh story by Christopher’s father, A. A. Milne, appeared in the London Evening News. But for most it’s October 14, 1926, when the first Pooh book, Winnie-the-Pooh, was published.

The adventures of The Bear of Very Little Brain and his friends – Piglet, Eeyore, Owl, Rabbit, Kanga and Roo, and later Tigger – in the enchanted Hundred Acre Wood have delighted generations of children. They kindle nostalgic memories in parents and grandparents. They are treasured by book collectors. And they are still inspiring writers and illustrators of children’s books. The only person who doesn’t like Pooh is Chinese President Xi Jinping, who keeps on censoring satirical memes comparing him to the tubby bear.

Birthday celebrations are under way in Ashdown Forest, East Sussex (home of the Hundred Acre Wood, Christopher Robin’s playground) and in places as far-flung as Boston Children’s Museum, the National WWI Museum in Kansas City and the New York Public Library, where Pooh and his stuffed toy friends sit on display behind bulletproof glass. Roo is missing, but Queen Camilla recently presented the library with a bespoke replica.

In a long and prolific........

© Brisbane Times