My Blog

A sense of family history is important.  Some families have a great-grandmother’s engagement ring, a silver tea set a grandad’s brother found at an estate auction or a plastic chip and dip set in the shape of  platypus your mother received as a wedding gift.  You don’t have to fight through the spider webs in your dad’s cellar trying to find something worth eventually passing along to your children, grandchildren and so on through the future generations.  Rather, initiate your own family tradition today by collecting Italian Charms for your children. 

Italian Charms bracelets are the perfect family tradition and treasure: they are not as fragile as that old vase, not so valuable that they can’t be worn on a day to day basis, and not so old that they fall out of style.  Rather, the great thing about Italian Charms is that they create a dynamic tradition:  each generation can add new links to the charm bracelet to reflect their own life and interests, which keeps the tradition significant, meaningful, and alive. 

So how do you get started?  Read on for three easy steps to follow on your way towards a new valuable family tradition:

1) Begin by purchasing a starter bracelet.

You can start your tradition inexpensively with starter bracelets.  Starter bracelets are often simple, 14 link bracelets with links that are easy to link and unlink.  Since the starter bracelets are made of a series of plain, individual charms, each carefully selected charm that you add will become a point of contrast and interest in the changing, overall design.  This is a valuable way of going about creating an Italian Charm collection because you want to be patient and collect your charms over many years, not all at once.

2) Purchase personal charms over time as they correspond to events in your children’s lives. 

When there is a new addition to your family, choose a charm with the appropriate birthstone.  Perhaps add a charm that reflects, in some way, the community of the birth.  From then on, notice what the children enjoy, their favorite toys or, as they grow older, the sports or hobbies.  With this information, begin to collect Italian Charms that reflect their passions, hobbies, interests, and especially their achievements.  Is your daughter an honor’s student?  Is your son an expert pianist?  Find Italian Charms that reflect these accomplishments and add them to their bracelets.

3) Give the bracelets to your children or other family members. 

The giving step might be a little difficult for you.  It may feel as if you’re giving away part of yourself as you have taken such care over so many years to collect the pieces of memories.  Select an occasion that is momentous, a transitional moment in the life of the bracelet’s recipient.  Find a time just before a wedding or after a graduation celebration when you can have some quality, unrushed time together.  Tell them about the importance of their new heirloom, the meaning behind every charm and how each charm should remind them of an important chapter in their lives.  Stress the importance of keeping the tradition going, and encourage them to continue adding charms until the time comes for them to pass the bracelet along to the next generation.

Leave that old vase in your father’s attic.  Start a dynamic new tradition for your children today.  Follow these simple steps to get started; you will find that the tradition takes on a life of its own after several years.  Perhaps you might even involve your children in the selection of new charms each year!  Just think, one day someone will add a charm that says: “I Love My Grandparents.”