A Habachi Bear Tradition

For this next post, I would suggest you sit yourself by your Christmas tree (if you have a laptop), grab a cup of coffee or hot chocolate and play some Christmas music in the background (however, I would advise you don’t listen to any songs including Santa or reindeer). This next story is about a Malone tradition that started about 25 years ago.

To begin, I would like to quote from a story that my mom wrote when she was working on her Masters degree. This is from a paper called, “When Dad told the Before Bed Story. It goes…

“…It was only at night during the Christmas season, when the tree was decorated, that Dad would tell the story of the Habachi Bears.  He never needed a book to help him tell a new adventure.  All the words were in his head.  His voice was quieter than usual as he sat on the carpet, with his shoulders slumped so that he was closer to his sons’ size.

Before the Dad started, each son got to take a hand full of red and green M&Ms, but would only eat them one at a time.  Each adventure started at the base of Crane Mountain in the Adirondacks, after the leaves fell to the ground.  This was the Dad’s favorite place to hike.  One time he found a small cave with leaves scattered all over the floor.  Somewhere in the cave was an opening just big enough for the Dad to squeeze through one shoulder at a time.  When he got through the opening he found he was in one large room.  The floor was completely covered with colorful autumn leaves of red, orange, brown, and yellow.  It was not just any underground room because just beyond that he could see another room filled with the hustle and bustle of small white bears.  These bears were about the height of the kitchen table and walked upright on two feet.   They had soft, fluffy, pure white fur, not coarse like bear fur, more like rabbit fur.  The Dad said he did not have to be afraid of these bears because they were very gentle and not the growling kind.  He could tell because their eyes were tender and sparkly…”

Now, every Christmas, we fill our breakable glass jar with the red and green candies that are delicately hand crafted by the tiny Habachi bears and I sit by the Christmas tree reminiscing about the stories told. I can picture sitting in my brother’s room, listening to my dad give very specific details about the bears and their dwelling place. Then my mind jumps forward to laying down by the  tree, surrounded by the many Habachi bears that my dad had been given each Christmas over the years. I would put my head on their soft fur and imagine what their workshop looked like. My mind then flashes back to the first gift we received from the Habachi bears; a tractor wrapped in their special blue wrapping paper. As excited as I was about my new tractor, I was even more excited at the thought that Habachi bears actually came to our house Christmas Eve!

Jump ahead with me  now to my year at WOLBI. That spring, I went on a hike with my father to the Habachi bear cave in Crane Mountain. It was almost unbelievable that I was actually climbing into the front cave of the Habachi bears (of course, I went no further out of respect because to this day, I believe my father is the only one to have seen the bears). A few years have gone by and each Malone son has received one Habachi bear when they got married to continue the tradition on with their families. Cheryl and I have set our baby bear under the tree where it observes the little red and green candies that its aunts and uncles carefully made.

These are a few of my memories, and what excites me the most is the many more that lie ahead. I may be 24 years young, but when I go home in just a few days, I am looking forward to hear if my dad has any more adventures to share of his hikes in the Adirondacks. My new little niece, Amelia, is almost for certain going to hear, for the first time, about these little Christmas bears, and I’ll add that to my memory bank of the Habachi Bear Tradition.

So from now on, when you’re sitting down by your Christmas tree eating red and green candies, just remember the tiny paws that were holding that candy months ago so that you could enjoy the time with your family and friends during the Christmas season.

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