Review: Christmas Bear and Letter to Santa from Pandora Winter 2014

It’s Christmas Eve, and I’m so looking forward to tomorrow – consequently I’m featuring a couple of Pandora’s most bright and festive charms for the season: the Christmas Bear and the Letter to Santa from the Winter 2014 collection. :D I am feeling really very festive as it’s been wonderful to relax a little for the holidays; the last few days have been spent in last-minute Christmas shopping, present-wrapping and lots and lots of cooking, so it’s been amazing to forget about writing papers for a while. ;)

I was planning on reviewing the Black Friday 2014 charm before Christmas but it still hasn’t arrived yet! Christmas post is the only downside to Christmas ;) In the meantime, we have these little pretties to look at!

I was initially a little dubious about Pandora’s Christmas selection for 2014. Last year, I was completely head over heels with their Christmas collection: I loved the classic, sweet style of charms such as the Carousel, the Sleigh, the Reindeer. It’s funny that the Pandora Christmas gift bag this year is navy blue, as the Christmas pieces themselves are a gorgeous cheery red, which I liked a lot – I just didn’t know how I could use them in my collection. However, I kept being drawn back to these two charms and eventually I caved! ;)

The charms

The Letter to Santa is another really fun offering for Christmas 2014, with its tongue-in-cheek little message, ‘I’ve been good’ written on it. It offers just a little dash of colour, too, so it can fit with a variety of bracelet designs and colour schemes.

The charm feels nice and substantial, with its threaded core. While the design is simple, it is still characterful and sweet. The cute star stamp features glittery enamel, but is more of a cute pinky colour in person than in the stock image.

As ever, Pandora include those fun little details – including the tiny star silhouette on the stamp. ^^

In contrast, the oh-so-cute Christmas Bear features a much more vivid use of enamel. It makes for a lovely festive feel, with its bright pop of colour, but does (for me at least) reduce its versatility. The green of his scarf is a more subtle touch – enough so that many people don’t even notice it, haha.

In person, the enamel of his hat is a gorgeous ruby red. I do just love the cuteness of his face – it’s a wonderfully comforting charm, with his little smile and the Christmas hat perched askew. He wears a little jumper and trousers, all wrapped up and cosy for the winter weather, with a snowflake detail on his jumper.

I already own the limited edition 2013 Bear My Heart charm, which is another variation of this design. However, there are little differences, as you can see. My Christmas Bear has a lot more oxidised patches across his face, too – I wonder if that’s intentional.

Styling

While I couldn’t resist buying them in the end, they still don’t have a permanent home in my collection yet and I’m not sure how I’m going to use them. I don’t like to have any charms just sitting in my jewellery box. For now, I’ve settled on wearing them almost on their own in a festive red design.

However, if you’re not a fan of Pandora’s leather bracelets, then a simple design on the bangle also looks beautiful. I don’t always want to go all-out making up a full Christmas design, as realistically it’s not always practical to buy enough holiday charms to fill up a whole bracelet – especially if you’re not intending to wear it all year round.

This design also looks beautiful stacked with the red leather bracelet!

Conclusion

These are really lovely festive charms and well-worth buying at least to wear on their own on a bangle or leather bracelet over the holidays, even if I’m not sure how to wear them going forward. ;) Additionally, it would have been so adorable, what with Pandora’s red enamel theme this year, to have made a little reindeer charm with a red nose. I love the existing Reindeer dangle, but it’s a nightmare for catching on things – making a non-pendant version like the Chamilia one would be fun!

The Christmas Bear is priced at £35 in the UK or $45 in the US; the Letter to Santa is £35 or $40. If you’re in the UK, you can buy them along with the rest of the Pandora Christmas collection from John Greed Jewellery.

Did you buy any of Pandora’s Christmas charms this year? Are you a fan of these pieces?