by Tracey Deaux
Child Life Specialist

Your late, you’re late, for a very important date.  The Mad Hatter’s Tea Party was a smashing good time on 10/6/2010 with events becoming curiouser and curiouser by the minute.  Mad Hatter’s Day has been a beloved Le Bonheur tradition for years.

If you are not familiar with Mad Hatter’s Day, it is a holiday that dates back to 1986 and is celebrated to honor the mad hatter, a fictional character in Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland who is always acting silly.  So, on Mad Hatter’s Day it is only fair and fitting to act a little silly yourself.  You may have noticed the mad hatter wearing a top hat showing the 10/6 card on the front.  It is believed the “10/6” means 10 shillings and six pence, or the price of a hat in British money.  Now, every year on 10/6 or October 6th, we celebrate Mad Hatter’s day hospital wide.

Patients, families, and staff wear their best hat attire all day to celebrate this great tradition.  At the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party, patients and families were provided supplies to decorate their very own “mad” hats.  While wearing your decorated “mad hat”, you could enjoy some other activities like Alice’s Appetizers with drink to shrink punch and cookies to grow, a memory game of characters from the hit film, a “sweeten your tea” basketball game, and flamingo croquet.  Also, in defiance to the queens orders, patients painted the roses red.

What a wonderful day this was!  It is nice to sometimes just be “all mad here.”