Happy Teddy Bear Day!

It’s time to get close up and personal with your huggable friend this month as we celebrate Teddy Bear Day.

For the team at Be My Bear, September 9 is just another day in teddy bear heaven but for many of us who have a soft spot for a furry friend, it’s an opportunity to reflect on the memories they trigger, the cherished moments of childhood and the comfort they’ve given us in good times and bad.

Surveys reveal some interesting facts about our relationship with teddy bears with over half of adults having a bear since childhood and quarter of men admitting they took their bear away on business with them! Children need their bedtime cuddles with ted but so it appears do many adults, for whom sleeping with a bear helps to de-stress after a hard day.

A survey by Travelodge revealed that the hotel chain had reunited 75,000 lost teddy bears with their owners after being left behind in beds all on their ownsomes!

Psycholgists put the attraction of a teddy bear down to its ability to evoke a sense of peace, security and comfort reminding them of home and cuddles with loved ones. They are the best friends that never criticise, always listen and are always at hand – unless they have bene left behind in a hotel room!

The traditional teddy bear seems to be the most popular with most people having one as part of their toy collection while growing up – and appearing regularly in TV programmes such as Big Little Ted in Playschool and Teddy in Andy Pandy. And not to forget Aloysius, Lord Sebastian Flyte’s teddy bear who represented his reluctance to grow up in Evelyn Waugh’s classic novel Brideshead Revisited The author apparently based his idea for Aloysius on a teddy bear named Archibald Ormsby-Gore who belonged to his close friend at Oxford the poet John Betjeman.

Be My Bear stock traditional teds in Scruffy, Twist, White Twist and Classic Bear which are all part of the great teddy bear manufacturing tradition with classic features and custom made fabrics. However, if you prefer something different, then there are plenty of others to choose from including Rainbow Bear, Purple, Pink and Blue Bear, Black Bear, Polar Bear and other colours galore in two sizes.

Our bears make wonderful gifts whether for a baby shower, for a pregnancy scan where you can record baby’s heartbeat and put it inside a bear, for a birthday party or wedding favour, there are no limits to the fun a bear can bring a recipient.

In the early days of Be My Bear my then business partner and I ran a Christmas teddy bear-making event for elderly residents at one of the Abbeyfield homes. The idea was that the residents would make a bear and then give it as a gift to a loved one at Christmas – in the event most of them ended up keeping the bears they had made as they just couldn’t bear to part with them !

Broadcaster Gyles Brandreth has a lifetime collection of 1,000 teddy bears, including Sooty and the original Paddington Bear, which has now moved to a permanent home at Newby Hall in North Yorkshire. But the largest collection of teddy bears according to the Guinness Book of Records in April 2019 is 20,367 belonging to Istvanne Arnoczki from Hungary. As a child growing up in extreme poverty, she never owned a teddy bear but her dream was to have one that she could cuddle up to at night.

And that in the end is the essence of the teddy bear - whatever your age, or gender it’s your go-to cuddle friend for better for worse, for richer and poorer, in sickness and in health. Love and cherish your ted always. Happy Teddy Bear Day!

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