Harrods Christmas Bears

Harrods Christmas bears are signature plush toy bears created by the London department store Harrods and released every year to celebrate Christmas. They have been a tradition since 1986, and past bears are now considered valuable collectors’ items.[1] Harrods bears can be recognised by a mark on their left paw, which shows the Harrods logo and the year they were released.[2]

Each bear has the Harrods logo and the year they were released on their left paw.

The first Harrods Christmas Bear

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Snowy, the first Harrods Christmas bear,[3] appeared in 1986 wearing a knitted hat and scarf. This first bear was the only one not to have the distinguishable logo and year on his left paw, and he originally sold at a price of £14.95. He was reproduced in 1995 – this time with the logo and the date, 1986, on his paw. Original, undated bears are incredibly hard to find (reputedly, even the Harrods archive does not have one) and can sell for upwards of £600.[1]

Since 1986, a bear has been released every year released in time for Christmas. Each bear wears a different outfit and care is taken to ensure that each year's bear is different to those from previous years.[3] In the early years, the bears did not have names. The first named bear, William, was released in 2003.[4] Since then, every bear released has his own name which is decided from a shortlist and is accompanied by a tag telling his story.[3] As the popularity of the bears grew, consumer demand led to all bears from before 2003 being retroactively given names[1]

Harrods Christmas Bear names by year[3]
Year Name
1986 Snowy
1999 James
2000 Merlin
2001 Scott
2002 Giles
2003 William
2004 Thomas
2005 Nicolas
2006 Alexander
2007 Benjamin
2008 Oscar
2009 Maxwell
2010 Archie
2011 Freddie
2012 Chester
2013 Sebastian
2014 Jasper
2015 Benedict
2016 Hugh
2017 Bertie
2018 Oliver
2019 Joshua
2020 Nicholas
2021 Angus
2022 Louie
2023 Ethan
2024 Noah[5]
 
Harrods Christmas Bear collection 1986-2020. Image supplied by UK collector.

References

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  1. ^ a b c "World Collectors Net – Harrods Christmas Bears". 4 October 2010.
  2. ^ "Designer Souvenirs | Harrods UK".
  3. ^ a b c d "The bear necessities". www.harrodscareers.com. Archived from the original on 2021-08-02. Retrieved 2022-04-08.
  4. ^ [1][dead link]
  5. ^ "Harrods Christmas Bear 2024 Noah (34cm) | Harrods UK". Harrods. Retrieved 2024-07-13.