William's Story by John Clayton

You may well have seen, or perhaps stitched, one of John Clayton's wonderful 'William Bear' designs, converted from his beautiful paintings. But did you know that William is based on an old teddy bear in John's possession?

The True Story

William belonged to the daughter of a friend of John Clayton. The friend is still alive but sadly her daughter, who was born in 1959, died from Cystic Fibrosis when she was just five years old. If she had lived she would now be in her sixties and I'm sure she would be thrilled to know that her teddy bear was so famous!

 

William and Robin – The Story of the Design

It was never supposed to be like this. Christmas Eve had been just fine with William playing amongst all of the other presents that Santa was going to give out. Christmas had come early for William but his fun was soon to end.

The deadline for presents to be wrapped up was eleven o clock that night by which time William had fallen asleep, still unwrapped, in the pile of wrapped presents.

He was given a rude awakening when he, with all the other presents, was thrown into Santa's huge bag and carried to the sleigh. But it was too late. He ended up at the bottom of the sack and started scrambling up through the other presents to get out. Before he reached the top there was a sudden jolt as the reindeers leapt into action and the sleigh shot into the night sky.

"Wait! wait!, I'm not wrapped up yet!" cried William but with the rush of cold night air streaming past, Santa did not hear him.

William eventually reached the top of the sack and looked out. Darkness was all around except for some street lights far below. Even though he had a good fur coat on, William began to shiver as he stood up and tapped Santa on the shoulder to try to stop him. This made matters far worse because Santa jumped with shock, pulled the reins to one side, the sleigh careered over and William fell out.

Down, down, through the dark cold air he fell before landing in a huge drift of snow in someone's back garden.

William brushed the snow off and wondered what he was going to do now. He was cold, bruised and feeling very sad. He sat down on a log and rested his chin on his paws.

"What are you doing here?" cried a little voice from somewhere above him. William looked up and by the light of the nearby house's Christmas lights could just see a little fluffed up robin on a branch above him.

"Well, I know you're not going to believe this" replied William", but I have just fallen off Santa's sleigh and don't know where to go"

"A likely story" said the robin as he flew down and landed on William's knee. "I thought it was only birds who had bird brains!".

"Very funny. But I've got to get inside soon because I'm supposed to be someone's present and I'm also getting very cold. Any ideas?".

"I'd have thought that was your problem, not mine" said robin.

"OK, I admit I'm a bear with a bird brain but right now I just want to get warm".

The robin looked up at William's sad face and after a while said "Look, I know this will be hard for a not very bright bear to comprehend, but why don't we find a house where some lights are still on like the one we are just outside now?"

The robin flew over to the windowsill. William quickly followed him and jumping onto an upturned flower pot was just able to see in. The room looked lovely and warm and he could see a Christmas tree and lots of presents.

"Oh please let me in. I'm so cold". William patted on the window and the robin tapped the glass with his beak. Would anybody hear them?

William at Christmas

This design is the follow-up to the story.  William has been let in and now has a nice warm home. He is looking down fondly at Robin – so we do have a happy ending!

William went on to have many more adventures, and of course, meet new friends.

You can see the complete range of William Bear cross stitch designs by clicking here.