Remember those old Santa Bears from Hudson’s?
The little adorable white stuffed bears were a huge hit during the Christmas season, with many metro Detroit families heading to their nearest Hudson’s department store to get their hands on that year’s latest Santa Bear.
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The bears have been discontinued for quite some time, but they’re still a shot of nostalgia for those who collected the bears, or for those millennials (like myself) who remember their parents collecting them.
Apparently, my own mother got rid of her Santa Bears years ago. At some point, she stopped bringing them up from the basement during the holidays (probably when I was in high school), and when she did a huge spring cleaning of stuff a few years ago, the Santa Bears didn’t make the cut.
When I recently asked my mom what happened to those Santa Bears, and she told me they were long gone, my first reaction was “not the bears!” I used to love those cute little bears, and the nostalgia I have for them is beyond! Plus, it got me thinking that there has to be some sort of demand for these bears now. It’s been years since any new ones have come out, so maybe they’re selling for hundreds of dollars on eBay, like a rare Beanie Baby from back in the day? Did my mom throw away a secret goldmine when she cleaned out the basement?
After a little bit of research, I’m sad to report that my hunch about the demand for Santa Bears is pretty much non-existent.
A quick search on Facebook Marketplace reveled that there are a ton of people trying to get rid of their Santa Bears, and they’re going for a pretty cheap price. A quick scroll down the webpage after searching Santa Bears shows that most people are selling a single bear for about $20. I even saw some as low as $10 or $5, which are probably coming from people who are a little bit more realistic about the desire for a stuffed animal.
The best is seeing people who are trying to sell all of their Santa Bears at once at a very high price. Some are trying to sell multiple bears for like $400, which is probably somewhat equivalent to what they spent on them at the time, but the demand just isn’t there anymore.
I asked my Facebook friends recently if they had tried selling Santa Bears, and a friend from high school’s mom told me she tried selling them at a garage sale, and ended up just giving them away for free, because she wanted the clutter out of her home.
My guess is that since Santa Bears are such a regional thing, the demand for these adorable bears just isn’t that big. Maybe you’d have better luck selling them to a former Detroiter who now lives in California or something.
What is the value of your Santa Bear?
So what are you to do if you have a collection of Santa Bears that are pretty much worthless? Enjoy them! These relics from the past are a simple reminder of past Christmases, and they’re absolutely timeless. Sure, they may take up some space in your home, but seeing them once a year with the rest of your Christmas decorations is a memory well kept.
Do you still have your Santa Bears? We want to see them! Upload a photo of them to MiPics, and we may even share them in future articles or end up on TV!