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National

Mad Hatter Day

Learning Adventure

Celebrate marvelous nonsense, curious words, topsy-turvy thinking, and a trip down the rabbit hole.

Curated by Laela
National Mad Hatter Day
Go a Little Mad!
📌 Quick Facts📅 October 6🇺🇸 Primarily celebrated in the United States 🎩 First celebrated in 1986.
❤️ Why We Celebrate

Mad Hatter Day began in 1986 when a group of computer technicians decided October 6 was a perfect day to celebrate silliness. Although Wonderland inspired the celebration, Mad Hatter Day isn’t just about Lewis Carroll. It’s a day to embrace a little harmless nonsense, think differently, play with words, and let ordinary rules become wonderfully topsy-turvy.

💡 Did You Know?

Why October 6? In John Tenniel’s famous illustration, a card tucked into the Hatter’s hat reads 10/6—originally the price of the hat in shillings and pence, but later interpreted as the date 10/6.

✨ Adventure Highlights
✏️ Wordplay & Portmanteaus 🎨 John Tenniel’s Illustrations 🪙 Old British Money 🐝 Weird & Wonderful Nature 🎩 Hat-Making History

1

Read

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Book Cover Alice in Wonderland Read This

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

by Lewis Carroll

Few books fit Mad Hatter Day better than Lewis Carroll’s wonderfully strange trip down the rabbit hole. The story is filled with impossible situations, puzzling conversations, playful logic, and language that refuses to behave quite the way readers expect.

As you read, notice what Carroll does with words and conversation. When something sounds ridiculous, ask yourself: Does it actually make a strange sort of sense?

For younger readers, an illustrated retelling is a great choice too.

📖 View Book
2

Write

✏️
You’ve received an invitation to the Topsy-Turvy Tea Party... where nothing works the way it should.Perhaps teacups give orders to the guests, everyone answers questions before they’re asked, the table insists that you pour tea for it, or saying one particular word makes something impossible happen.Write a scene from this wonderfully mixed-up tea party.

Portmanteau Challenge

Invent at least one portmanteau for your scene by blending two words into one.

  • giggleicious = giggly + delicious (Perhaps describing tea so tasty it makes you giggle.)
  • crumptious = crunchy + scrumptious (Tea with a surprisingly crunchy topping?)
  • flabbergiggled = flabbergasted + giggled (I was so surprised by the dancing teapot that I flabbergiggled.)

Give your new word enough clues in the sentence that a reader can guess what it means.

3

Play

🎉
mad hatter topsy turvy tea party

Host a Mad Tea Party

Put on your silliest hats and transform snack time into a miniature Mad Hatter celebration.

Serve something unexpected… dessert before lunch, tiny sandwiches cut into unusual shapes, mismatched teacups, or a snack with an outrageously fancy name.

Then add a few Wonderland rules of your own:

  • 🎩 Everyone must wear a hat.
  • 🔄 Change seats halfway through the snack.
  • 🤪 Rename one ordinary food with a ridiculous new name.
  • ❓ Answer all questions with wonderfully silly answers.

Want to take your tea party a little farther? Alice in Wonderland: The Official Cookbook includes more than 50 Wonderland-inspired recipes, including Unbirthday Cake and Curiosi-Tea!

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🌎 Keep Exploring

Every adventure has another path to follow. Choose a trail and see where your curiosity leads!

Language Trail: Pack Two Words Together

Lewis Carroll delighted in playful language. In Through the Looking-Glass, Humpty Dumpty describes words with two meanings packed together like a portmanteau. Carroll’s creations include words such as frumious, blending ideas from fuming and furious.

Wonder Challenge: Words like brunch, smog, twirl, hangry, and spork were all created by blending two other words. Can you figure out which two words were blended together to make each one?

Art Trail: Meet John Tenniel

Illustrator John Tenniel created the original published images that helped generations of readers picture Alice, the Hatter, the Cheshire Cat, and the rest of Wonderland. His detailed black-and-white drawings became almost as famous as the story itself.

Wonder Challenge: Find Tenniel’s original illustration of the Hatter and look closely. What details help make the character seem unusual before you read a single word?

History Trail: Why Were Hatters “Mad”?

The phrase “mad as a hatter” was used well before Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland was published. In the 1800s, hat makers sometimes used mercury compounds while turning animal fur into felt. At the time, people did not fully understand how dangerous mercury exposure could be. Workers who breathed the fumes over many years could develop shaking, difficulty speaking, and changes in mood and behavior.

Wonder Challenge: Find mercury (Hg) on the periodic table. What is its atomic number, and what unusual property makes mercury different from most other metals?

🌱 Follow your curiosity! Research tips →

Would you rather...

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Infographic for National Mad Hatter Day

Print & Plan

Printable Lesson Snapshot

Keep today’s book pick, writing prompt, family activity, and discussion ideas together in one colorful overview.

View & Print This Adventure Perfect for homeschool or classroom planning.

🐐 Share Your Spark!

Today’s conversation: If you could add one completely ridiculous rule to a Mad Hatter tea party, what would it be?

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🐐
Laela DUYW Team August 10, 2026

Hmmm... I think my tea party rule would be that before any tea was poured, everyone would have to switch hats. 🎩 I have a feeling the rules would get increasingly ridiculous from there!

Reply

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