ObservanceTuesday, November 2, 2027
Cookie Monster Day
- Date
- Recurs
- Every year on November 2
- Category
- Kids & Family
Cookie Monster Day falls on November 2 and marks the blue, insatiable Sesame Street monster who has been eating things on camera since 1969. The date is widely given as Cookie Monster's birthday, though Sesame Workshop does not say so on its own sites. What is documented, in the Smithsonian's catalog record for the original puppet, is stranger than a birthday: Cookie Monster began as a sharp-toothed snack-food villain who stole wheels.
History
The character's history is unusually well recorded, because the original puppet is in a museum. The Smithsonian's National Museum of American History holds it as a gift from Jim Henson's family — Lisa, Cheryl, Brian, John and Heather Henson — dates it to 1969, and credits Don Sahlin as its builder, Frank Oz as its original performer and David Rudman as its current one.
The catalog record traces the character backward, and the trail leaves Sesame Street entirely. "Cookie Monster evolved from a monster created by Jim Henson for a General Foods Canada commercial in 1966," it reads. "This character advertised the snack foods Wheels, Crowns, and Flutes along with two other monsters and was known as the Wheel Stealer." The Wheel Stealer went on to appear in an IBM commercial and on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1967, and "eventually made his way to Sesame Street after losing his teeth. Once there, he gained his love of cookies and the name Cookie Monster by the second season." For the show's first season, in other words, the blue monster had neither the cookies nor the name.
Sesame Street's first episode aired on November 10, 1969. The same record settles two things viewers tend to wonder about. Cookie Monster can feed himself because his hands are gloves worn by the performer and his mouth opens into a hole that runs down the performer's sleeve. And the cookies are rice crackers made to look like cookies, because the oils in real cookies would damage the puppet.
The observance is the undocumented part. Where November 2 came from, and who first called it Cookie Monster Day, is not stated by Sesame Workshop or by any source that cites a document, so this page credits no founder.
Timeline
- 1966 — Jim Henson creates a sharp-toothed monster for a General Foods Canada commercial advertising the snack foods Wheels, Crowns and Flutes. It becomes known as the Wheel Stealer.
- 1967 — The Wheel Stealer appears in an IBM commercial and on The Ed Sullivan Show.
- 1969 — The original Cookie Monster puppet is built for Sesame Street by Don Sahlin, and the character arrives on the show after losing his teeth.
- November 10, 1969 — Sesame Street's first episode airs.
- 2005 — Hoots the Owl sings "A Cookie is a Sometime Food" to Cookie Monster, part of a Sesame Workshop program responding to the obesity epidemic.
How to observe
Go to the primary record. The Smithsonian's catalog entry for the original puppet is public and short, and it is more interesting than most writing about the character: the Wheel Stealer, Don Sahlin and the rice crackers all come from there, and it takes about three minutes to read.
Then watch the 2005 segment the record singles out, in which Hoots the Owl sings Cookie Monster "A Cookie is a Sometime Food," part of a Sesame Workshop educational program launched in response to the obesity epidemic. The record notes the episode "generated controversy and conversation, with some commentators bemoaning that 'woke' Sesame Street producers were robbing the series of its innocent joy," which is worth knowing before anyone tells you the argument about Cookie Monster's diet is a recent one.
If you are baking for the occasion, the honest tribute is a rice cracker on the plate beside the cookies.
Frequently asked questions
Is November 2 really Cookie Monster's birthday?
It is widely given as his birthday, but Sesame Workshop does not state it on its own sites, and no source citing a document could be found for it. Treat it as a date the internet agrees on rather than one the show has confirmed.
Who performs Cookie Monster?
Frank Oz performed the character originally and David Rudman performs him now, according to the Smithsonian's record for the original puppet.
What was Cookie Monster before Sesame Street?
He had teeth and no interest in cookies. The Smithsonian traces him to a monster Jim Henson made for a 1966 General Foods Canada commercial, known as the Wheel Stealer, who later turned up in an IBM commercial and on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1967 before losing his teeth and joining Sesame Street.
Does Cookie Monster eat real cookies?
No. The cookies on camera are rice crackers made to look like cookies, because the oils from real cookies would damage the puppet.
When did Sesame Street first air?
Its first episode aired on November 10, 1969.
When is Cookie Monster Day?
| Year | Date | Day |
|---|---|---|
| 2027 | November 2 | Tuesday |
| 2028 | November 2 | Thursday |
| 2029 | November 2 | Friday |
| 2030 | November 2 | Saturday |
| 2031 | November 2 | Sunday |
Sources
- Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of American History, Cookie Monster Puppet, catalog number 2013.0101.20 — https://si.edu/object/cookie-monster-puppet:nmah_1449002 → the 1969 original puppet and Don Sahlin as its builder; Frank Oz as original performer and David Rudman as current performer; the gift from the family of Jim Henson; the 1966 General Foods Canada commercial and the Wheel Stealer advertising Wheels, Crowns and Flutes; the 1967 IBM commercial and Ed Sullivan Show appearance; losing his teeth, and gaining the cookies and the name by the second season; the live-hand puppet construction and the rice crackers standing in for cookies; the 2005 "A Cookie is a Sometime Food" segment with Hoots the Owl and the reaction to it.
- WGBH, American Archive of Public Broadcasting to Preserve Fifty Years of Sesame Street for Posterity — https://www.wgbh.org/foundation/press/press-releases/2019-02-14/american-archive-of-public-broadcasting-to-preserve-fifty-years-of-sesame-street-for-posterity → Sesame Street's first episode airing on November 10, 1969.
Omitted for want of a source: who created Cookie Monster Day, and why November 2; any official Sesame Workshop statement of Cookie Monster's birthday. Both sesameworkshop.org and sesamestreet.org were checked and state neither, so the observance's origin is left undocumented rather than attributed to a guess.
Note on rejected sources: the November 2 birthday appears on daily-holiday aggregators, a greeting-card site, Medium posts and fan wikis, and in a newspaper filler item that reproduces the same claim without a citation. None of them names a document, so none is used here.
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