Excelsior is a wood product made of aspen fibers, used in packaging, cushioning, stuffing of stuffed animals, and for the cooling pads in home evaporative cooling systems known as swamp coolers. Excelsior, dyed green, makes an annual appearance as the "grass" in Easter baskets, or did in earlier decades before the prevalence of plastics. Traditionally used in stuffing Teddy bears[1], it is still used in stuffing the muzzles of some collectible bears. The term excelsior is sometimes used more generally, for any clean, loose material for shipment-packing of boxes or crates, such as styrofoam packing peanuts.
