To me, there are few material things (like.. not love or or ice cream) in life as perfect as a soft teddy bear. When my daughter goes to bed at night, amid her 5,000 stuffed animals, and there is barely enough room for her body to lie in there, much less mine, I have to swallow my frustration with her growing stuffed animal collection. I have to swallow my frustration because she’s lucky. She’s lucky to love something and to get it in droves. She’s lucky to have the imagination and love it takes to own and play with stuffed animals. She’s lucky to have the comfort – which may be the most key part in all of this.
Parts of my early childhood were so sad, and do you know what got me through, after my parents and siblings had gone to bed and I was awake and wondering, “What if?”? It was my stuffed animals. It was the way the years would go on and my suspensions of beliefs would change. Maybe I thought they came to life at night at some point. Maybe there were many middle years in which I logically knew they didn’t come to life at night, or have hearts and souls, but there was a part of me that still believed. Sometimes when I look at my old Donald Duck stuffie – my most favorite and prized – maybe I still do.
Something pretty awesome happened a few weeks ago. We got a giant box in the mail from Snuggle® containing three brand new and perfect teddy bears. I placed the box upstairs while I went to mull over what to do with the three bears, but Scarlet discovered the box. She instantly fell in love with the teddy bear I gave her, and Snuggle® came with us to Vermont, and many other places. Now I had Scarlet to help me think about what to do with the other two bears we had gotten!
First, she decided to give a bear to Des. Even though they bicker over LEGOs and personal space and LEGOs and food and LEGOs, ultimately she is his big sister and she looks out for him. I made a video of Scarlet giving Des a new Snuggle Bear.
The bear soon joined Des’ dynamic duo of “Fafa and Puppy” and now it’s a superhero trio of “Fafa, Puppy and Snuggle.” They all go everywhere together, although Scarlet wast the one to put Snuggle Bear on his head during the poor kid’s nap:
Today, September 9th, is National Teddy Bear Day. In fact, the whole month of September is actually SeptemBEAR. The #ShareABear movement has been created to show the world that something that seems so small as gifting a teddy bear, can actually brighten someone’s day. In fact, I truly believe it can brighten someone’s whole world.
Now that I had Scarlet and Des on my team, we talked about where to donate the last bear. Since he was brand new and still packaged, we decided to donate the last Snuggle Bear to a local organization in our town called Safe Passage.
Since 1977, Safe Passage has served survivors of domestic violence, their children, friends and families by providing hope, support, counseling, advocacy, shelter, support groups and community education helping to build toward safety and healing.
I didn’t take videos inside the organization, but I know both kids were humbled by the experience of donating. They brought their own bears and listened intently while I talked to the staff there. And we got a thank you card in the mail!
Pretty adorable, huh? HOWEVER, we need your help since Snuggle Bear can only spread the teddy bear magic so far. Snuggle is asking fans to share their favorite teddy bear moments through photos, stories, and videos throughout the entire month of SeptemBEAR. For every photo, story or video posted on social media with the hashtag #ShareABear, Snuggle will donate a teddy bear to a child in need! Visit the Snuggle Facebook page HERE to learn more about #ShareABear, watch the National campaign video and post your own #ShareABear post on your social media channels. Believe me, it feels GREAT.
Omg, I love the Snuggle Bear and always have! Ironically enough, Lily decided to take her Teddy Bear from Disney World to school today and she didn’t even know what today was, but definitely love that this happened on today of all days here 😉
AW, Lily! Des now naps at school – now that he goes until 2:30 instead of 1:00. I need to send a stuffie with him. Snuggle Bear!
Ok, now I am saying, “Aw” in return with Des napping at pre-school with his Snuggle Bear!! 😉
And the teacher sends me photos of the napping! I can’t wait to add a teddy bear to it!
Omg, those photos have to priceless!!!
They are! I’ll have to text you the ones she’s already sent, without the teddy!
When I would climb up into your loft bed, I would carefully replace each and every animal after changing yoru sheets or making your bed. Now, I get it!
I get it too! I totally get on the bed and do that for Scarlet. And you just know she’ll do it for a kid one day. Actually she already does it for Des.
Snuggle bear is cute! What a great donation place as well! My oldest still has her much loved teddy bear on her bed. I just don’t know when treasured stuffed animal friends like that ever get old? I kept some of mine and the kids still play with them!
Snuggle is so cute! When I was a kid and saw the commercials for the fabric softener, I used to want a Snuggle Bear. So it’s like I’m re-living a random dream.
I love this! What a great campaign! I was actually gifted a Snuggle Bear during a traumatic time in my life, so I know how wonderful and meaningful it can be!
Really?? You just made my day. Really. I always wanted a Snuggle bear as a kid. Always. I didn’t know they existed! Maybe they came out after I was very young. It makes me so happy that someone gave you one. And makes me want to give so many more to shelters.
Yes, really! That bear helped me through a huge ordeal! I am in love with this campaign. It has ALL the feels!
So awesome. And by sharing the campaign, more and more bears are going to be placed with kids.
What a great cause! Thanks for sharing the #ShareABear info, Tamara. I love the videos and pics of Des and Scarlett enjoying their bears. Lovely post!
In fact, both kids are with their Snuggle bears right now – in that after-school, before dinner lazy time.
That is cute! My kids love their stuffed animals too. I can relate to this post.
I’m so glad, thank you! And like you have a big family, I grew up as one of five. The stuffed animals we all had could fill a basement.
Oy, my heart! I’m fairly certain there isn’t anything as sweet as the photos of Scarlet smiling sweetly while hugging her Snuggle bear. Photography gold, there. Pulls all the heart strings. Makes me want to “forget” paying bills, go buy a bunch of bears, and start handing them out to random people on the street.
I love that you guys chose to donate to a shelter. DV and AS awareness is near and dear to my heart, and usually where I donate when I have some to spare. Thank you for protecting the privacy of the shelter while still giving them a lovely shout out. Thank you for your heart and all this love and happiness and snuggly comfort.
Now, I’m off to see how much room I can find in the budget for a couple teddy bear surprises!
I so love your reaction to my post! That’s what I wanted! Snuggle bears for everyone! I mean.. why not?
It was really a long process to choose Safe Passage. We thought about a children’s hospital but didn’t know their rules for stuffed animals, even though it was wrapped. Other ideas were fire and police stations because sometimes policemen and firemen have to go to houses late at night.. or even in the day.. and there may very scared children there in need of teddy bears.
Make sure you share the hashtag and they’ll donate a bear! Although I think you may have done so already!
it’s funny, franco got all these stuffed animals before he was born and on his first birthday and I was thinking, “he’s a boy, he’s not going to like that stuff.” but he totally loves his friends! he gives them hugs, cuddles with them, and kisses them. it’s so cute. he also tries to eat their ears, but oh well.
Scarlet took awhile to love stuffed animals. There was the baby period and then that whole “mouthing everything plastic” from age one to two. Ha! Now she can’t get enough stuffies.
I bet their ears taste very delicious to Franco.
I only had one teddy bear in my bed, a big gray bear, and don’t encourage the kids to have more than a couple. I don’t discourage it either, I just like having it just me and them.
That’s cool, though! Just a couple of special ones. Even though Scarlet has 7,000 (slight exaggeration), Des only has about three he loves.
Does it make the cute little laugh? OMG I want one…so cute! And the videos are priceless!
It doesn’t make the laugh! It’s so cute and snuggly, though, as you can see in the photo of me sleeping with it! I hope you get one!
I can’t even handle those bears. Or those nap pictures! Your kids are gorgeous and those bears are insanely adorable.
Thank you!! I can’t handle it either. They take those bears EVERYWHERE. And Des is not even a teddy bear person!
This post is adorable! I loved looking at these ones. I had a giraffe as my favorite stuffed animal and it went everywhere with me!
Melanie @ meandmr.com
Aw! That’s how I felt about my Donald Duck. I still have him, safely away from kid hands. He’s the only one I still have as an adult.
Your kiddos are too cute with their bears. My son loves his teddy bear. My daughter has babies that she loves. They both sleep with their stuffed toys every night.
Aw! That’s so sweet. My kids also leave all their stuffed animals in our bed too.
What an awesome campaign, Tamara! And I agree with other commenters: your photos are fabulous! I actually haven’t heard of Snuggle Bears but they look so soft and cuddly 🙂
Thank you so much! I loved the photos for this. Too cute.
Snuggle is a leading fabric softener and the Snuggle Bear has been around since I was a kid! I always wanted one.. now I have two.
Oh duh! Lol Yes I know that Snuggle bear now. Totally saw it around when I was a kid too.
I was obsessed with him! I absolutely wanted one, so it’s funny that it’s come back around like this.
What a great place to donate your third bear. When my son was 5 he was given a teddy bear in the hospital, and it made him feel so much better. He’s almost 18 now and we still have it.
Aw! That’s a great story and I’m happy you shared.
Scarlet & Des are so cute together! That’s so sweet that they donated the third bear 🙂 Someone gave my mom a pretty big Paddington Bear before I was born, and she has still has it. When Eve was staying at my parents’ house while Sam and I were traveling, she discovered Paddington and started playing it. It was really cute to see this bear that I had grown up that is quite big (Eve is now finally bigger than it!) being loved by my own daughter. When we’re home again in a few weeks I’ll have to get a picture of Eve holding it and share it for the campaign.
That’s so sweet about Paddington. Scarlet got a stuffed animal when she had to go to the ER for having her hand caught in the van door. The hand was just bruised, but the bear still lives with us!
Snuggle bear looks so cute and cuddly! Love how it turned into an experience to serve and give too fit your kids! Stuffies have always played a huge role for my kids… No one will part with them and even as teens often still snuggle (with back scratches too 😉)
The back scratches! The best.
My kids want to give more and more, which makes me happy. We can start with one step and it grows.
Stuffed animals were always very popular at our house. Something soft to actually squeeze and feel loved by…. To be honest, I’m not sure we ever had any actual bears, but some wide variety of creatures. What a great cause to be associated with!
I had a very wide moose collection as a kid. Not surprising, right? I love a classic teddy bear, as well as a variety of other animals.
Oh this is the cutest! Funny story–LAST year around this time (I guess it was for National Teddy Bear Day!;-) I saw the Snuggle truck parked here in NYC and they were handing out mini Snuggle bears to the good people on the streets of NY! I took one, and to this day it’s my chihuahua’s favorite cuddle buddy…the perfect size!
That story is fantastic! It must have been National Teddy Bear Day or maybe just in SeptemBEAR. It makes me happy to hear. And if you have any photos of your puppy with the Snuggle bear, I’d love to see! Just for cuteness.
What a great cause and so great your children got involved. I had LOTS of stuffed animals when I was growing up and my sister and I would make them talk to one another. I was sad when J didn’t take to a bear when he was an infant/toddler. But suddenly, at age 3, he fell in love with a Teddy and it’s been love ever since. Makes me so happy!
That’s adorable. My daughter definitely goes into her own imaginary world and makes hers talk to each other.
Scarlet didn’t have any real stuffie loves until she was three or so. I guess it can happen later!
I wish I had remembered that yesterday was the day. I was trying to keep up with it in my head. So glad it wasn’t a one day share. I’ve got a post I wrote in 2012 and the snuggle fabric softener is actually in the picture!! I love this post so much. Maybe because I have a thing for the nostalgia of stuffed animals. Love the videos. In that first one I bet you almost couldn’t keep up with Scarlet, she was excited! 😉
It’s SeptemBEAR all month long! I feel silly writing that. haha.
I love stuffed animals and what they give to children, and adults!
The end of the video is cut off because Des said something ridiculous. Not inappropriate but just ridiculous. Cassidy said I should have left it in!
So cute! I love that you got Scarlet and Des involved in donating the last bear. I’m sure they will remember that for a long time! I shared my bear story today. It’s an old one from a few years ago, but still cute!
I saw that on Facebook! I will have to sit down to read it later. I can’t wait!
I still have my first teddy bear! Mom told me his face is flat because I kept punching him in the nose, lol
That’s adorable and hilarious! I wonder why you punched him. ha!
Snuggle Bear is so cute and I just love that video of Scarlet taking him to Des. I was waiting to hear what Des had to say but the video ended. 🙁 Madison’s first Teddy was from Build-A-Bear Workshop and is allergy friendly and has her name/date of birth and her birth weight on it and she takes her everywhere. Coincidentally her name is Teddy too. 🙂
The problem is that Des said something ridiculous at the end so I had to edit the video! It wasn’t vulgar but it was too silly. Now I wonder if I should have left it in!
Awwww! Love the photos and I have always loved the Snuggle Bear! What a great reason to share the photo. Even though my kids are older – we still have their teddy bears tucked away somewhere in storage. I just might have to dig those out to participate.
Aw! That’s sweet. I’m certain my parents still have many of ours too.
oh man this is a really super cute and a sweet post! I am a big fan of the snuggle bear, because he is a staple to our childhood! I love that your kids get to enjoy him too. 🙂
I remember watching the Snuggle commercials so clearly – and he had a cute voice!
My kids are obsessed and it makes me happy.
I was always more of a rabbit girl than a bear lover, but Snuggle’s project to donate bears to children in need is wonderful! Stuffed animals can be so comforting to kids. I know they were to me 🙂
Scarlet has a stuffed bunny collection!! She also has a collection of cats, dogs, bears, unicorns…and more.
So adorable. I love stuffed animals, still do. But they are one of my oldest (first?) memories. I know that when I was small kid I was always, I had to be always surrounded by all my precious stuffed animals to go to sleep – good memories they are. I hope your snuggle bear gives good memories to another child.
AW, I so hope so. And all the Snuggle bears that went out this week.. makes me so happy to be part of the wonder of so many childhoods. Not me, directly, but all of us!
Oh, so sweet!!!!!!! And with that, I can go to bed with warm, happy feelings. THANK YOU!
Aw, sweet dreams to you! I guess now it’s Good Morning!
Reiko loves stuffed toys. And yes teddy bears. I never really thought of buying one for him coz I thought he may not like it. I bought a bear one time as a gift to my trainee and he saw it and wouldn’t give it back to me so I just gave it to him. I can remember a photo of Scarlet with the gazillion stuffed toys in her room! I guess it’s better than sleeping with toy trucks and cars. LOL. So sweet of you to donate one of the bears! No one’s ever too old for it.
I don’t know that I’ve ever bought stuffed animals for the kids either! Not until more recently. I guess it’s because you never know what will stick and why. It’s serendipity!
OHMYGAWD, Tamara. This post is like sugary cuteness overload drenched in sprinkles and unicorns and rainbows. I love everything about it 🙂 Your kids are so incredibly adorable and I love that they love their teddies so much.
Confession time: I used to think my stuffed animals came to life as soon as I left the room, too. Also I had a favorite spot under the kitchen sink I used to disappear with my toys and we’d hold meetings. LOL. That always makes me laugh, as though I was the leader of misfit toys or something 🙂 XOXO
I used to have my Donald Duck have sick days every now and then. He’d just wake up sick and I’d spend an entire day checking on him and making him rest and have juice. Ha!!
We have a bin filled with all of my kids’ old stuffed animals…they won’t let me get rid of them. Gwen still sleeps with a few. I think you are never too old to cuddle with a teddy bear!
It’s true! I find a lot of comfort in it. When I go to therapy (ahem) I always hug a pillow!
I love that bear! my girls barely have enough room in their bed for their own bodies. I like how Seinfeld coined it “the semi circle of emotional support” – because honestly, it is !! And I cannot fault them one bit since I too have a teddy bear, a Daryl Dixon and a Captain America on my own night stand! LOL
We have Iron Man Bear! Or.. Iron Bear.
I just looked at Scarlet’s bed and said, “How do you sleep here?” At least 300 stuffed animals. She said, “Very well, in fact.”
Indeed.
What a cute teddy bear. I can see why she loves it so much.
My son got obsessed with his too. It’s really cuddly and warm!
We have donated to Safe Passage before, I love that Snuggle is involved! That bear is super cute!
That makes me so happy that you’ve donated to Safe Passage before! They do such wonderful things.
What a lovely bear! I’ve never seen one before but it looks so warm and fuzzy. I still have Mr Huggles, my white giant teddy bear from when I was a child – too many years ago now!
I wanted one as a kid but only from seeing the commercials – I’m not sure they made them that far back! Mr. Huggles sounds delightful.
We love our Snuggle bear and I am a huge fan of Teddy Bears in general. There is something loving and save about them.
Yes! I love the comfort they provide. And the imagination. I love watching my kids fall in love with them.
My kiddos seem to have amassed a tiny army of stuffies! lol It does make me crazy to keep them somewhat organized so they don’t take over the house, but like you said, they are important to my kiddos so I make it work. I love that your family donated a teddy bear to Safe Passage. It’s such a wonderful way to Pay It Forward!
I so hear that. Ours take up an entire room, it says. I have no idea how my daughter sleeps on that bed! If you suggested she get rid of even one, she’d freak! They’re all her “family.”
What a sweet post! All of my little ones (except the youngest) have latched onto a stuffed animal and that’s the one they alway have to have. The youngest latched onto a blanket 🙂
My youngest loves a blanket too! It’s a lamb blanket and he calls it “Fafa.” (I have four spares but don’t tell him!)
Thats nice of the brans to send you teddies to celebrate the say. The kida really took to cuddling with them.
I agree! It really made our day to get that box in the mail.
This truly is a sweet post. Scarlett is such a terrific big sister to share a bear with her brother. Snuggle Bear is so cute and cuddly .. every-time i See the commercial i have to say “aww”.
I was telling them that Snuggle Bear commercials were on when I was a kid, and I always wanted a Snuggle bear! I totally thought it would talk to me in that same Snuggle voice too.
National Teddy Bear Day! Well, I never. My kids could have championed this day – and your pictures are amazing. I love Scarlett and her bear, and her great awesome Spirit!
I can’t believe this day exists! It’s almost too cute to be true.
Those pictures and the video are so sweet. I love the Share a Bear idea.
Thank you! I really love it too. It’s made so many families so happy.
I love how you guys shared your bears! It’s awesome that they will donate one bear for every share on social media.
Donations are always so appreciated, I know. And a big cuddly teddy can make a kid very, very happy. 🙂
What an awesome way to give back! My daughter sleeps with her “baby bear” every night and man would it be great for her to gift one of her other bears to another child. Thanks for the inspiration!
Aw! Baby bear! My kids are so proud of their bears. They go to a lot of places in public because the kids love them so much.
I love this post! I still have some of my old stuffed animals, and my daughter’s bed is full of them, even though she’s now 23! Amazing what a teddy bear can do for a child (or an adult!).
It’s amazing for sure. And I love that you never moved them off your daughter’s bed. I don’t think I could ever do that to my kids!
This post is so adorbs (term from my nine-year-old). Stuffed animals are the best, especially when you can snuggle into them and forget your troubles.
Adorbs! That is a cute term. I might have to use it.
This was absolutely adorable. That is so sweet that the first one she thought of was Des, what an amazing big sister. I love that they also got to share in the magic of giving, so beautiful! It is totally amazing what a teddy can do, and I have to say that I did and still do think the very same thing…kind of like The Velveteen Rabbit. Lil miss has a teddy that D-man won for her about 6 years ago, and that is her bff! LOL! Have an amazing week!