Coronation Preparation

"Do you know what's happening next weekend?" Scary asked the rest of the teddy bears.

"Is it my birthday?" asked Tommy hopefully.

"Are we going on holiday again?" asked Vicky enthusiastically.

"No, neither of those," replied Scary with an indulgent smile. "It's actually the Coronation of our new King, Charles III. And this is the first coronation any of us will have known because it's been 70 years since the last one - and none of us is old enough to remember that - not even me!" Scary laughed.

"Gosh!" exclaimed Teddy. "That's a very long time ago. Will we be celebrating?"

"That's just what I was going to suggest," Scary replied. "It's a very important occasion for the whole country. And, also, don't we all love a good party?" he chuckled.

"What sort of party shall we have?" asked Lizzie.

"Well, I thought, as it will be in May and the weather will hopefully be warm and sunny, that we could possibly have a Garden Party" suggested Scary. "What do you think? We could invite all our friends to join us."

All the other bears thought that a Garden Party sounded like a great idea!

"It will need a little bit of preparation and organising," continued Scary. "Who wants to help?"

Fourteen paws shot into the air - everyone wanted to join in.

"OK," smiled Scary. "We'll need food, and decorations, and somewhere to sit, and maybe some games and activities (for when we're not eating of course!) And, as we have our own Charles, maybe we could even hold our own Coronation?" All the bears thought this was another great idea.

Boo spoke up. "Can I be in charge of food?" he asked. "Only, it will be a bit like the picnic food I put together for our recent hike, but a bit more special" he continued.

The other bears agreed that Boo did make some really nice picnic food, and several of them offered to help.

"All we can do at the moment," Boo said "is to plan what we want to make, and then write a shopping list for all the food, giving us enough time beforehand to make it." So he and his group got together with paper and pencil to start their planning.

"I could make some decorations," offered Lizzie. "I'm thinking maybe some colourful bunting - probably red, white and blue (for our national flag), with flowery bits in between to match the garden? I think we have enough stuff already that I can use."

"That sounds great!" Scary said. Charlie offered his expertise in construction to help put the bunting up when it was completed. Lizzie scampered away to hunt through the craft box. They had made their own colourful crowns last year for the Platinum Jubilee celebrations, but maybe they could also find some items to use as a golden crown, and a royal cloak for Charlie to wear during his 'coronation'?

"Can I help?" Vicky shouted after her. "And us?" asked James and Teddy.

Lizzie turned and called back "Of course, the more the merrier!"

Charlie also offered to plan where the seating and eating areas would be on the day (and that they could be moveable if the weather wasn't quite so nice), and Scary would ask their friends if they could bring some games and activities. Everything was falling into place.

Lizzie needed to make her bunting in advance of course. It wasn't something that could be left till the actual day. She and her team sorted through the craft box. They found some colourful pieces of paper, just the right size to cut into small flags, and they gathered some coloured twine, a ruler, a pencil and a hole punch - all of which they would use for the bunting. They also found some gold card (for Charlie's crown), and some lovely material (to use for Charlie's coronation robes). Edward had offered to make Charlie's outfit so they passed on the card and material to him.

Lizzie explained how they could make their bunting. "We'll need to measure and cut out some triangular flags in that flowery paper, and the plain red, white and blue papers," she began, "then we'll punch two holes in the widest end of each flag, then thread a long length of twine through the holes. Charlie can then hang the bunting between the trees and over the bushes in the garden!"

The bears followed Lizzie's plan and after a lot of hard work ended up with several colourful lengths of bunting, ready for their Party next week.

Are you having any special celebrations for the Coronation? You could follow some of the bears' ideas if you like.

If you want to make your own bunting, you can follow Lizzie's more detailed instructions here. Have a great time!