A Sault Ste. Marie grandmother spent months putting together a special memory for her granddaughter — a white Christmas tree filled with about 70 adorable teddy bears.
Connie Hanchuk spent about seven months tracking down, cleaning and preparing stuffed bears to fill a seven-foot Christmas tree in her west end home.
‘Nora’s tree’ has been a months-long labour of love of intended for Connie’s 18-month-old granddaughter, who often visits from Echo Bay.
About 70 bears were collected from garage sales, Stephanie’s Joy or Value Village before being given a second chance at being loved on Nora’s tree. Some were purchased by Connie while others were given to her by friends and family after they heard about the project.
“I collected bears since last June, I took the sweaters and hats off of them, I gave them all a good shampoo, put brand new ribbons on them. They have a brand new home now, some are sitting in rocking chairs, some are standing tall. The majority of them are hanging off the tree and there are a bunch on the floor,” said Connie.
“Somebody loved all of these bears once. Now they have a new home and a little girl is going to love them,” she added.
Nora was in awe the first time she saw the tree, said Connie, and every time she visits she speeds up the stairs to the dining room to see if any bears have been added since her last visit.
“I added two today and when she came in today she knew they were different from the rest. Go figure,” said Connie.
The fluffy white tree was itself picked up second hand on Facebook Marketplace.
“It’s just a feel-good tree. She can touch anything on that tree that she wants to. Nothing is going to break or fall, it was just my idea of not having to say no to her and letting her have fun with the tree itself,” said Connie. “Christmas trees are awfully beautiful and decorative, but they don’t have a heart and soul. This one has bears that came from everyone’s home — it has lots of heart.”
“This is her fun. She grabs her little toys and she sits beside the tree, looks at them and then looks up at the tree. It has just brought so much pleasure,” she said of Nora and the bears.
Connie and her husband Bill are of retirement age and wanted to build a special memory for their granddaughters second Christmas.
“I never thought I would get to enjoy a little person, because we are old and this is our first grandchild. So we won’t be here forever like my mom was around for 40 years with her grandchildren. It’s just a different scenario here,” said Connie.
Every year Connie decorates a number of Christmas trees in the home, including a festive palm tree in the breezeway and other Christmas trees downstairs.
“This is the first one Bill really got involved with, because it’s for Nora,” said Connie of her festive tree collection.
The beginning of the pandemic was difficult for Connie because she was so worried about unknowingly passing COVID on to her granddaughter, who was a newborn at the time.
“If we ran into anybody else then we would make sure we didn’t go down to see her. Then we finally got to the point where we would just buy lots and fill up our freezer,” said Connie.
The plan is to keep the tradition of a teddy bear tree for Nora going for years to come.
“This year she is absolutely in love with it, I am hoping she is going to be in love with it for a while,” said Connie.