Here I go again, conducting my yearly tradition I do: handmade Christmas gifts for the family. Last year I made these fantastic Reindeer and decor crates for Christmas, here, which were a big hit with the family. This year I was adamant I was going to outdo last year gifts, but there was a big hiccup this year with my plans. I ended up traveling most of the year for work. Traveling squashed my grand handmade gift ideas to the ground. Ok, it didn’t do that much damage. All this means is I have a shorter amount of time to create my gifts this year. I will have to resort to making something smaller this holiday season — no biggy.

What kind of handmade gifts do I want to make this year? Good question. Needs to be small, cute and Christmas themed. I like sewing animals so I want to make an animal that I can easily and quickly create. Oh, I know! How about a polar bear?! Even better, I can use my embroidery program and machine to stitch out the face details and paw prints plus make my embroidery machine half sew the plush for me. Hehe. This would save me a lot of time! For those of you that might not know, I am going to create my own In-The-Hoop (ITH) embroidery plush. More than a year ago, I made an ITH Husky Plush, here. This husky plush is what inspired the small polar bear plush idea.

Here is a short video of my embroidery machine stitching out some of the polar bear details:

I love my large Husqvarna Viking metal hoop I got for Christmas last year from my in-laws. This large metal embroidery hoop lets me make four polar bear heads at once and four bodies in a separate hooping, which saves me so much time! If I did not have this large metal hoop, then I would only be able to complete one or two at a time. Technically, I could use one of my other big hoops I have, but the metal hoops are easier to set up than the traditional embroidery hoops. 

Like I mentioned before, I had to travel quite a bit this year for work. To prevent procrastination and reduce stress I decided that for my final work trip down to Florida I should pack the unfinished polar bears with me on my work adventure.

Below are photos of me working on the polar bears in my hotel room:

Below are all the polar bears stuffed but still need to be sewn together:

I don’t think Florida weather is ideal for Polar Bears but I think they enjoyed the relaxing beach scenery from my hotel room, I know I did. Hehe. Here is a photo of the gorgeous view:

They even had nice chairs on the balcony to enjoy the view. I may have sat outside a few times hand sewing the polar bears together.

I am so happy I decided to bring the polar bears with me on my work trip to finish most of the polar bears. Here is 25 complete polar bears I made:

If you guessed classic Coca-Cola, you would be right. The idea came to me when I saw the Coca-Cola commercials showing the polar bears sharing a coke with each other. It was like a light bulb on my head went off at that moment, hey, you need to find the classic glass bottles of coke to add with your polar bears. The coca-cola was the small detail needed to add that extra adorable touch. Hopefully, when family members open the gifts, they will get it. Haha. Oh, I also tied a nice small ribbon around their necks to add the extra Christmas touch.

My hubby loved the idea, but he wanted to add his little detail to the gift idea.  He decided it would be awesome for family members who are 21 years + should get a tiny little bottle of crown royal to spike there drink. Haha. For the young ones that can’t have alcohol, we gave them two glass bottles of coke to be fair. 😉

All in all, these polar bears and added details were the highlight of my Christmas especially when everyone thought they were so cute and thoughtful. 😀  I love making cute handmade Christmas gifts and I am already planning next years Christmas gifts. 😉 Haha. To be honest, I already started planning 2020 Christmas too. 😂

Almost forgot. Here are more polar bear pictures with ribbons around their necks:

Merry Christmas everyone! Cheers!

Thanks for stopping by!