If you've been to this store before, you know to brace yourself to spend a decent $60 on some beary cute merchandise-- that is unless you come on your child's birthday!
Urban legend had it that if you come on your child's birthday to build your very own bear, you only pay their age for their special birthday bear. I had to investigate! After all, my baby was only turning 2 and that sounded like a big ole cuddly bunch of savings to this mama!
So I did the digging and found out that if you register for Build-a-Bear emails and add your child's birthday to your account, you should be good to go! I set all this up about a week in advance, but didn't trust that alone. I called ahead to the Toms River store to confirm that morning and we were on our way to building my son's very first bear.
My little guy had his birthday party a few days before his birthday, but I still wanted his actual day to be special. We opted for lunch and ice cream at Friendly's and then a trip across the highway to the Ocean County Mall for Build-a-Bear. His birthday fell on a Monday so I knew we wouldn't be dealing with crowds for any of our plans and we didn't have to wait one second to start our bear-building experience.
The staff was super sweet (I'm sure it is a pre-req to be hired in a store like this) and upon hearing that it was my bud's birthday, started our experience with a birthday crown (which of course he didn't want to wear). Staff then explained that for birthday bears you don't get your pick of any stuffed animal. You need to choose from the designated birthday bears to get the special price. She also reminded us that the pay-your-age birthday bear does NOT include accessories but we could add-on whatever we wanted for the additional prices. I had figured this before we arrived, but I am sure some people don't realize that is how it works.
We happily grabbed our birthday bear and my toddler was a bit weirded out by the bear until we stuffed it. Something about the plain ole bear "skin" creeped him out-- but who can blame him? We then went thru the bear prep and my nugget thoroughly enjoyed stepping on the pedal to help stuff the bear, picking out a heart, and adding a sound (extra $ but so fun and worth it). We opted for the birthday song, but skipped the heartbeat sound that you can add later.
After the bear is prepped, you bring it over to the air shower which my son really loved. In fact, his bear took multiple air showers! After our bear was looking fresh and clean, we opted to dress him in a birthday dino shirt from the accessory racks (extra $$ but also worth it-- so cute!). We wanted our bear to hold an accessory (they had a bear cupcake!) but our birthday boy only wanted the shirt.
We then named our bear BART at the computers and checked out with our purchase. The bear ($2), the birthday song sound-piece ($6.50), the dino tee ($7), foundation donation ($1) and the fun bear condo box ($0.95) totaled $18.55 (which included tax) and I was more than happy to pay that discounted price. Please note, these prices can change so don't assume everything will be these exact prices when you make your own bear.
We had an awesome time making our friend BART, and even though my toddler has played his birthday song a million times since his creation, I still think it is super cute and am glad I thought to bring him here on his birthday. If you can't come on your child's actual birthday, I believe you can make a birthday bear for their whole birthday month! Just call ahead to confirm that the store participates in that activity so you aren't caught with a more expensive surprise. After all-- I suspect that it is VERY hard to walk into that store and NOT walk out with a bear-- especially if you are with your little one!
For more info and to get on their e-blast, check out BuildaBear.com.