Punkinhead The Bear (character)

Punkinhead is an original character created for the Santa Claus Parade by Eaton's.

## Punkinhead's History

### Creation

When Eaton’s asked its employees to come up with a Christmas idea for the store to promote, one of the suggestions was an animal mascot. Eaton’s then approached Winnipeg, Manitoba-native cartoonist and illustrator Charles Thorson to design a character to represent the company during the holiday season. The result was Punkinhead the Bear, a young brown bear with blonde hair and yellow trousers. The character was approved by Eaton's and eventually became the company's mascot.

Punkinhead was first introduced in the book *Punkinhead: The Sad Little Bear*, which was published by Thorson. Punkinhead lived in “Bear-Land”, a forest inhabited by bears, but unlike the other bears, he was different from the rest, with the big difference being his large tuft of blonde hair. Unlike the other bears, he had a large tuft of blond hair on the top of his head. Because of this difference he was laughed at by the other bears. Part of the teasing was the bears calling him Punkinhead. (Which refers to pumpkins, as his hair tuft is like the stem of a pumpkin) He tried to get rid of the tuft, but he couldn't. Then Santa and his North Pole friends stopped at Bear-Land to grab honey sodas for them to drink. One of the clowns ate too much honey sodas and eventually got a tummy-ache. Santa didn't want an empty spot in the parade, so the Fairy Queen brought up the idea of having a bear fill in for the clown for Santa's big parade. The bears tried on the clown's hat, but their heads were too smooth, which caused Santa and his friends to give up. But then the bears remembered Punkinhead, who was alone of the other side of the forest, feeling sad. They remembered where he walked to and brought him to Santa. The hat fit perfectly, and that was when Punkinhead had an important role in the Santa Claus Parade, making all of the children smile.

In 1951, Bill Isbister wrote the Punkinhead Song, a song based on the story.

### Popularity Surge

Punkinhead became much more than a parade favourite. Every year following the original story, Eaton’s issued a booklet with another story that was given to the children visiting Eaton's Toyland. Punkinhead was also featured on a wide variety of merchandise, such as wrist watches, clothing, furniture, decorator plates, and of course, toys, from plushes to rocking toys.

### Eaton's Era

Punkinhead made many appearances in Eaton's Santa Claus Parades in many cities with Toronto and Winnipeg's Santa Claus Parades being prime examples. He also made appearances in parades organized by civic groups and communities.

He was featured on a lot of floats, both in walk-around form and as an animatronic. Floats from the 1950's to the 1960's featured him getting around in many ways. He went fishing on the June float in 1956, drove a long showboat in 1960, and flew in a helicopter for the 50th anniversary parade in 1954. The rest of the floats during his time with the parade featured him in Eaton's Toyland, either surrounded by toys or driving the Toyland Train.

Punkinhead would be a mainstay for the next two decades. For his appearances in the 70's and early 80's, he would just appear in Eaton's Toyland, either surrounded by toys or riding the Toyland Train.

Then came 1982. The parade was cancelled, and Punkinhead was retired along with it. This made 1981 his final appearance as a character in the Eaton's brand.

### Eaton's Attempted Revival

In 1992, Eaton's was waning in popularity, so they brought Punkinhead back. Although it brought nostalgia to people's lives, it didn't work, so their attempt to get their attention back was a failure and not even Punkinhead could bring the brand back up to the top.

### Sears Revival

2008 marked Punkinhead's 60th anniversary, so Sears brought him back for the 2008 holiday season, and part of that was a giant Punkinhead float that appeared in the parade. the float was very popular with the older spectators. Because of this, so many people wanted to see Punkinhead return, and that's exactly what Sears did in 2009. They brought the float back for one more appearance, which was Punkinhead's last appearance.