The Bear In the Window (A Christmas Tale)

One winter, a long time ago, in the brightly lit window of a toy shop, sat a bear; a warm, cute, cuddly, adorable brown bear.

 

And a little poor girl whose parents couldn’t afford to buy the bear would often press her face against the window and peer in at it and wish in her heart,

 

“Oh bear, I wish that you were mine. I’d hug you and I’d love you and I’d never let you go”.

 

And the bear, seeing her face peering in at it again and again and seeing the love in her little eyes made a wish too,

 

“Oh that girl”, it thought in its little brown bear head, “That’s the one I want to own me. I know she’d love me”.

 

But then, sadly, one day a sour faced, spoiled brat girl and her rich, doting mother were walking passed the shop and, seeing the bear in the window, the spoiled brat pointed to the bear and yelled,

 

“That bear. I want that bear, mummy. Give it to me now!”.

 

The poor bear didn’t like the look of the spoiled little girl and didn’t want to belong to her but unfortunately, because he couldn’t move, he had no choice about who bought him and then, the little girl and her mother going into the shop, the mother paid the shop owner the $30. 99 that it cost and the shop owner wrapped it up in a fancy box, tied in a silk bow and it was taken home to the big house where the little girl lived and put with her other toys.

 

But the bear was miserable living with the spoiled little girl, in fact all her toys were miserable.

 

“She doesn’t love us at all”, said a rag doll to the teddy bear, “And does mean things to us like stamping on us and throwing us across the room and bashing us against things. She never cuddles us like a normal little girl”.

 

The little bear remembered the poor girl who had peered in the window of the toy shop at it and sighed,

 

“There is a little girl I would like to belong to. I know that she would love me and hug me. I wonder if I’ll ever be her bear?”.

 

And at night, when the spoiled girl was asleep, the little bear would dream of the poor girl; of being owned by her and them playing together and of being cuddled by her.

 

Then one night a dream fairy; the kind of fairy that enters children’s bedrooms to blow dreams into their ears while their asleep, sliding down a moonbeam from high up in the sky, flew into the spoiled girls bedroom and, after blowing a dream into her ear about eating an enormous plate of ice cream, it noticed a sound coming from her toy box, a sound like sobbing and, peering into the toy box, it saw the little bear crying.

 

“What is it that can make a little bear so sad?”, asked the fairy.

 

The bear told the fairy all about the little poor girl  who had gazed in at it through the window of the toy shop and how it longed to be her little bear and, hearing this, the dream fairy was so moved that it said,

 

“Don’t worry little bear. I’ll see what I can do”.

 

Then the fairy, flying over to where the spoiled little girl was sleeping, blew a different dream into her ear; one about the little bear becoming a big grizzly bear and chasing her round her room growling and snarling.

 

And, the next morning, when the spoiled little girl woke up; remembering the dream, she didn’t like the little bear anymore, in fact she hated the bear so much that, angrily, she opened her bedroom window and threw it out into the snow.

 

The poor bear fell several feet and landed hard upon the snow covered pavement outside.

 

Fortunately he was filled with soft stuffing and so he wasn’t hurt but he lay there on the pavement for hours wondering what would become of him.

 

“Oh what will happen to me now”, he fretted, “Perhaps I’ll be thrown in a dustbin and end up on a landfill, oh dear and then no one will ever love me”.

 

But then, while the bear was gazing gloomily, through its glass eyes at the sky overhead, suddenly, its little furry heart leaping with joy, it saw the face of the little poor girl looking down at it and smiling.

 

“Why you’re the little bear from the window”, she said, “What are you doing lying there, little bear?”.

 

And she picked the bear up, hugging it tightly.

 

“You can’t lie in the snow little bear”, she said, “You’ll get cold. Why don’t you come home with me?”.

 

The little bear couldn’t say anything, but inside he was so happy and then the little poor girl took the bear home with her and, because she loved him so much and cuddled him lots and lots, the bear lived with the little girl happily ever after.