Twenty youngsters flocked to the museum with their teddy bears yesterday afternoon, and helped decorate beds for them, for a planned ''sleepover''.
The bears were then left behind ''for their night of adventure''.
The youngsters will be reunited with their bears when the museum reopens at 10am today, and they can also watch a ''slideshow of the things they got up to'' during the night.
A note on the museum's internet site yesterday indicated the event was ''fully booked''.
Well before nightfall, bears in a wide range of sizes and colours and boasting an array of names were already well tucked in and looking particularly cosy in their cardboard box beds.
Museum visitor host Stephanie Alderton dreamt up the museum sleepover idea some months ago.
The sleepover had proved popular, with ''lots of people'' keen to participate and about 40 applications received.
Public programmes developer Rua McCallum said the popular sleepover could become an annual event, but next year the museum might host it at a different time of the year.
Lucy McDermott, a year 4 pupil at Macandrew Bay School, said preparing for the sleepover had been ''really fun''.
Her mother, Helen McDermott, said this was a ''very fun, exciting activity for the children, for the holidays''.
