A young boy in a blue Indiana Jones T-shirt leans on a red counter filled with teddy bears, whilst another child in a green shirt stands behind him, both inside a Build-A-Bear Workshop.

Build A Bear Workshop

ByLouise

Today we have been to the Build A Bear Workshop at The White Rose Shopping Centre, Leeds. The boys have been ever so excited about this visit and they haven’t stopped asking when we are going so I was ever so pleased to tell them today was the day they got to make bears.
When we arrived at the store we were greeted by a lovely staff member called Claire. She told the boys all about the wonderful bears or animals that they could choose and explained how the bears were made. the hardest bit was for the boys deciding which teddy they wanted to make as you can see by Callum’s face it was a tough decision.

A young boy in a blue Indiana Jones T-shirt leans on a red counter filled with teddy bears, whilst another child in a green shirt stands behind him, both inside a Build-A-Bear Workshop.

Eventually Callum chose a teddy to be made, Nathan a monkey and James wanted a dog teddy.

Three young boys explore a Build-A-Bear Workshop; one sits in a pushchair holding a soft toy and dummy, while the other two stand nearby with their own soft toys. Cuddly toys line the shelves in the background.

Once the boys had chosen their teddies the lovely Vicky came to help them. We were shown the different sound buttons that a teddy can have in it and even shown a special heart that when pressed sounds and feels like a real heartbeat. Callum decided he wanted The Smurfs sound button in his teddy and as Nathan was having a monkey he decided that he wanted the monkey noise too. James on the other hand wasn’t very fussed by the noises so he didn’t have one put in his teddy.

Two young boys stand at a colourful counter in a Build-A-Bear Workshop, watching an employee in an apron help them. Plush toys and stuffed animals are displayed on shelves in the background.

The next step after putting the sound button in the teddy is stuffing, now to me this is one of the best bits and I’m pretty sure both Callum and Nathan would agree with this as they both enjoyed watching the huge fluff machine spinning round and round, plus they got to help out with this bit.

A young child in a green dinosaur shirt watches as an adult in a blue apron stuffs a soft toy at the Build A Bear Workshop station. Red plush hearts are visible in a clear bin nearby, ready for new soft toys.A woman in an apron helps a young boy with a soft toy at Build-A-Bear Workshop. The boy stands near a bin of red items, whilst shelves of boxed toys fill the background.

Now once the bears are stuffed comes the bit that is probably the most important bit of all bringing the teddies to life. Each of us took a little heart in our hand and had to do exactly what Vicky told us to do, we placed the hearts on our noses, heads, knees and tummys. The reason for this was to help the teddies become wise, playful and loving. One last thing to do to the hearts was to kiss them and make a wish, I’m not sure what the boys wished for but I know my wish although a secret is only a wish a mummy could make!. The boys placed their hearts in each on their teddies and then Matt and I also placed the hearts we were holding in with them too. Once this was done the teddies were sewn up.

Two young boys stand in a Build-A-Bear Workshop, watching a large stuffed animal being prepared. One boy is clapping whilst the other looks on, surrounded by other people and colourful displays in the background.Two young boys stand indoors, each holding a red object to their nose as if pretending to be clowns. Both are wearing blue shirts and jeans, with Build-A-Bear soft toys and toys displayed on shelves in the background.

The boys were then told that they could choose an outfit for their teddies, Nathan chose some lovely Lightning Mcqueen Pyjamas and slippers whilst Matt helped James chose a fisherman’s outfit (definitely more Matt’s choice than James’ I think). Callum didnt want an oufit for his bear but instead chose a bed for his teddy to sleep in. There are many different types of clothes and accessories for bears these can be purchased in store or online. It was definitely hard work for the boys deciding what to pick as there is so much variety.

We helped the boys to make birth certificates for their teddies, we chose them a name each, Cheeky Monkey, Rover the dog and Bobby Bear. We were given the bears in big boxes so we could take them home and we all had our photo taken with our new teddies (in their boxes).

A woman and three young boys pose together holding bags at Build A Bear Workshop, framed by a colourful border with red, blue, green, and white dots. A decorated wall and soft toys are visible in the background.
The picture we had taken
Three stuffed animals—a dog, a bear from Build-A-Bear Workshop, and a monkey—are sitting side by side on a black leather sofa. The bear is in the centre, perched on a yellow butterfly-shaped cushion.
Here are the finished teddies complete with outfits (and bed)
As you can see from Nathan’s picture below he loves his monkey very much.
A young boy smiles and hugs a stuffed monkey toy from Build-A-Bear Workshop whilst standing in a living room with toys and shopping bags scattered around. A TV is mounted on the wall in the background.
We have loved every second of our visit to the store and will definitely be going again soon. The staff are wonderful and cannot be praised enough by us. They made the boys laugh got them to do things they wouldn’t normally do and made us feel really welcome in the store. I honestly don’t know how they have the energy to keep smiling and bouncy all day long but they do. It is really nice to see this too as sometimes when I visit a shop even when aimed at children I get the feeling the staff would rather be elsewhere, and in my opinion when you work in this type of atmosphere you must be willing to help your customers and make it an enjoyable experience for them. For this reason I am rating the staff at the Leeds Build a Bear Workshop with a fantastic 5/5, we also give the experience of building a bear a 5/5 too. We will be highly recommending our friends to try this but definitely telling all our local and close friends to go see Vicky and her staff in the Leeds store.

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