A Bear-y Good Christmas

Finished my Christmas decorating after a breakfast of Cheese-Garlic Grits and a half a grapefruit. First thing on the menu was setting up my Christmas stuffed animals. My mother had the original idea. She would borrow teddy bears and other stuffed animals from us, dress them in old winter baby clothes or even things she'd made herself, and arrange them on the hope chest. It was a display my sisters and I could play with and not break or mess up anything. It was even an interactive display; after Christmas, we took the winter hats off the toys and put them in New Year's tiaras and hats instead.

Mom gave the bears to me when I moved to Wildwood for the same reason she gave the garlands to me. She hadn't put up the bears in years and really no longer had the time for dressing stuffed animals.

It's still mostly bears under the tree. There's my two-foot Paddington Bear I've had since he was bigger than me. There's Mom's old bear Chester. Ches is so old, his red-and-green knit hat says 1987. There's little Sara, the old brown bear in Anny's red velvet baby dress, and the koalas Hugh and Mel. (Ok, they're marsupials. They look like bears.) There's my three polar bears, Happy, Marshmallow, and Quinn. There's the WebKinz pairs, Clarence and Mary the Reindeer and Arizona and Holly the Cardinals. A collectible bear in a sleigh holds two more small bears and a tiny reindeer who plays music when you squeeze him. Tiny Tim is another polar bear in a cute sweater who was given to me by my friend Kelly in Wildwood. I adore the vintage 1986 Muppet Babies dolls I found at the thrift shop in their original bags and with their tags. They were a huge McDonald's promotion that December. We had all three of them, but our original ones are long gone, and I was thrilled to find these three intact.

Hung my stockings after I finished with the bears. I have two stockings, both of them snowman-themed. The older one with all the sequins is the one Aunt Terri made for me when I was really little. He's a fat, jaunty fellow with a broom that's coming off the stocking. Mom's is more elegant. Her snowman is made of good fuzzy fabric and dances against a blue star fabric sky, on a field of Swiss lace snow.

Mom made each of us a stocking in the mid-90s after we began to complain that we were growing out of our old ones. Anny has a cute little Rudolph peeking out of a mini-stocking that's an extra pocket. Rose has a dapper penguin in a top hat. Keefe's used to be mine, but he got it after I got my snowman. A small town with a gold star overhead awaits for Santa, looking serene on a plaid background. Mom said for years she wanted to give Keefe a more boyish stocking. I wonder if she ever did?

The displays came last. The heavy resin Santa and the little home-made stocking filled with tiny random toys from old Happy Meal boxes join Jessica, a paper mache doll in an elaborate dark-red lace gown and big matching picture hat, and the wood Noel sign. The Webbies, my four WebKinz named after the Monkees, watch over a tiny basket filled with fake greenery and a miniature wood log cabin that's supposed to be used to burn pine-scented incense. I'm not a big fan of incense (unlike Mom and my sisters), so I use it as a little house instead.

There's lots more stuff my mother gave to me after clearing out her Christmas boxes. The Santa and Mrs. Claus salt-and-pepper shakers probably used to belong to her mother; they look very 50s to me. A pair of delicate porcelain angels playing painted gold instruments flank the cassette shelf in the music section of the living room. Eckard's sold these really cute beanie toys in the 90s of various holiday items - Mom gave me the candy cane. He's on my desk, along with the pull-toy snowman and the Santa's Chocolate Shoppe tin. Oopsy and True Heart Bear hold the small white wreath I bought at a school Christmas bazaar when I was attending the Special Services District. Bedtime, Funshine, and Wish Bear and the Sailor Soldiers hold the "Falala" and "Hohoho" signs Linda Young made me last year. Brave Heart Lion carries a pretty mini-wreath wrapped with plaid ribbon I found at some dollar store in North Cape May.

The Sailor Soldiers have a special friend who comes for the holidays and their very own Christmas tree. I found Winter Cinderella at the thrift shop around the same time I ran across the Muppet Babies. She's a collectible Disney Princess doll in a stunning cream-and-gold gown with matching gloves, headband, and "glass" slippers. I put her with the Sailors every year, since she's about the same size. (Well, maybe a little taller, with her huge bun.)

The little tree dates back to college, when we couldn't have big trees - even fake ones - in our dorm room. Mom knows I love Christmas trees, so she sent me the mini-tree and the tiny balls that go on it my first semester at Stockton. When I got out of school for the semester, I'd just put the little tree in my room. After I graduated and moved to Wildwood, I started setting it up in my bedroom with the Sailor Moon dolls...and I've done that every year since, even after I came to Oaklyn.

I had an hour left when the decorating was done for lunch and Christmas specials. Ran Santa Claus Is Coming to Town and two famous Disney Silly Symphony cartoons about Santa, Santa's Workshop and The Night Before Christmas. The latter two are long-time favorites of mine. I love the parade of toys in both cartoons. The adorable red and blue wind-up piggies and the tumbling teddy bear in Workshop would be on my Christmas list even today!

It had been cloudy, humid, and relatively warm (probably in the 50s) all morning, and was still cloudy when I rode to work. The clouds burst not long after I arrived at the Acme, and they've continued for the rest of the night. They did have the positive effect of clearing out the store. It was steady tonight, but nowhere near as bad as yesterday. I was in and out with no problems, and my relief was actually early.