Fluffy Stuffed Toys

Why is it that despite the new toys constantly being invented, stuffed toys, especially animals, have never gone out of fashion? It even seems that there are more types of stuffed fluffy toys on the market every year.

Some of us never outgrow our love of plush toys. When a baby is born, the first thing many of us do is buy a stuffed toy, quite often the much-favoured teddy bear. When we do so, we fondly remember how much we loved our first cuddly toys. In fact, there is now a growing tendency to buy stuffed toys even for our pets.

Some of us keep our favourite ones for many years. They are often battered, missing parts, such as eyes or the occasional arm or leg, but we still keep them. Sometimes we say that we are keeping them for our children or grandchildren to show them what we loved as children.

If they are in good condition, we sometimes say we are keeping them as an investment for our offspring. I suspect, however, that the reality is that we cannot bear to part with our old childhood friends.

They come in a variety of colours and sizes. We can get small stuffed elephants or big blue bunnies. There are big stuffed toys that would take over most of a child’s bed, and tiny ones that can be lost in the blankets. It doesn’t matter, they are all well-loved.

While stuffed toys are the favourites, we can buy knitted ones, or ones made of some type of material, such as cotton. If we are handy, we can make them ourselves. We can buy special stuffing or use old nylons. I have even seen rags used as stuffing.

We might think, when we buy them, that we are buying the stuffed toys because the children for whom we are buying the toys will like them. This could very well be correct, but I think that we are also buying them for ourselves, because we are the ones who love them. Giving presents that we ourselves love, though, to our children is an act of love, so that is not something for which we should feel ashamed.

If by some mischance our childhood toys are lost or destroyed, we feel the loss. Some of us buy them, or are given them as presents, even when we are adults. To me, this show how much we love our stuffed toys, and is the reason that they will never be out of fashion, no matter how much technology brings new toys for us.