CHRISTMAS ARTS & CRAFTS BAZAAR THIS WEEKEND

JACKSON -- Lillian Hahn makes 13 different styles of stuffed bears. There's one sure way to tell her females from the males, she says.

"They have sweeter dispositions."

A retiree who lives in Jackson, Hahn is the creator of The Bear House stuffed bears, which have found homes in 18 different states, Canada and Germany.

She will be among the 250 crafts people selling their wares Saturday and Sunday at the 23rd annual Christmas Arts & Crafts Bazaar at the Show Me Center.

The bazaar, the primary fund-raiser for the Southeast Missouri Council on the Arts, will be open from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. both days. The booths will offer country, Victorian and folk-art decor, hand-made rugs, carousel horses, porcelain dolls, hand-made jewelry, scrimshaw, doll houses and many other items. Concession stands also will be open.

More than 12,000 people attended last year. Admission is $1 for adults, free to students.

Hahn's bears are collectors' items. Each is named -- there's Peewee, Wee William, Wellington, Benjamin, Sir Winston and Patrick, who comes on wheels -- and signed, and they come with price tags ranging from $75 to $400.

They are "antique-style" teddy bears, fully jointed with shoe-button glass eyes and suede paws. She embroiders the noses.

Made of German mohair and poly-filled, they range in size from 10 to 26 inches and come in brown, gold and white.

If she tried she could make two teddy bears a day, but says, "I don't want to work that hard."

She has "a fast sewing machine," and her husband Edward sometimes helps out.

"I sell almost all I can make," Hahn said. She also makes teddy bears out of quilts.

Hahn mostly sells her bears through magazines and at the Frontenac Plaza in Clayton. The craft bazaar presents a rare opportunity for local people to buy one.

Many collectors and customers are men. "A fellow in the Ozarks has had three grandsons, and each time he orders a different bear," she said.

Like her husband, Hahn is retired from the International Shoe Co. in Jackson. A teddy bear-lover herself, she began her second career seven years ago when she saw a bear she wanted to buy in St. Charles.

The price was too high, Hahn thought, so she decided to make one herself. "I just kept making more bears," she said.

"...There's just something about teddy bears that people like. They're very lovable."