Today’s post brings my first Christmas review proper of the season, with a closer look at the Pandora Winter 2016 Mrs Claus charm (also known as Mrs Christmas or Mrs Santa Claus, depending on your region!). This was one of my very first purchases from this collection and one of the most detailed of the new beads. :D
I am so glad that it’s the end of the week, which for some reason has seemed ever-lasting to me. I’m just waiting for the break from work over Christmas and to get stuck into all the Christmas fun – particularly the cooking and baking!
Therefore, it seemed entirely appropriate to me to come home from work and put the finishing touches on my review of the Pandora Christmas 2016 Mrs Claus charm, which is perhaps the most comfortingly and cutely festive bead going this season (providing you don’t find her miniature face creepy!).
Read on for close-up shots and some festive inspiration! ?
Pandora Mrs Claus Review
Clutching a gingerbread man, Mrs Claus has a kindly little face and very cute glasses perched on the end of her nose – I love the little oxidised dots for her eyes, which work very well. Miniature faces can be hit or miss, I find, whether in dolls, charms or anything else, with the potential for small features to be blurred or distorted into something that looks quite creepy. Happily, this one, for me, avoids that trap and manages at the same to give her face a delightful depth of character, kindly and bird-like.
The red enamel is even more pretty in person than it is in the stock image – it’s a translucent berry red, set off delightfully by all the lovely oxidation in the scalloped detail of her dress or the lenses of her glasses. I just wish that there was a Father Christmas bead in the same style, so that I could wear them in together!
As it stands, you can choose from the all-silver Father Christmas, the red enamel one or the comic-style Jolly Santa.
The detailing is there all the way round this charm, down to the hairs in the back of her bun, and the little red enamel bow adorning her back. Which is amazing, considering just how small this bead is. It’s very dainty & narrow and won’t take up much space on your bracelet (which is good for me, as it meant I was able to squeeze her into a rather tiny gap in my design!). It’s comparable to other small charms such as the Pandora Disney Eeyore.
At the base of the charm, you can see her booted feet and the edges of her skirts – the hallmark is also tucked away down here, too.
Styling
My first impulse for a Mrs Claus styling was a Christmas Treats design, which is intended as a warm, comforting mix of delicious indulgence and festive beads – I just wish I had the Candy Cane bead or the red candy-stripe murano, as they would have been perfect! As it is, I’ve gone for some rich golden tones instead, which pleasantly remind me of baking, cinnamon and gingerbread! I’ve used the original enamel Gingerbread Man, the two-tone Cupcake and the original Christmas Tree, and the silver Stocking bead.
To finish off with, this is my full Christmas bracelet, which I’ve tweaked from last year with three of the new holiday beads from this year’s collection. :D The Red Robin and pearl bell charms that I had on there before have been whisked away to other bracelets (you’ll see the Robin again in a later holiday review!), and replaced with Mrs Claus, the Christmas Kitten and Santa’s Home.
I posted both my Christmas bracelets to Instagram, too; you can appreciate how diminutive the Mrs Claus bead is when you see it in the context of all the others!
I say ‘both’ my bracelets, as I also have a little festive bangle design on the retired pavé star bangle, which has been updated for this year with the red enamel Pinecone & the Christmas Pudding.
Conclusion
In conclusion, if you didn’t already get it, this bead is already a festive favourite for me. I totally get that it might not be to everyone’s taste, but I love quirky, cutesy beads like this one – you can really appreciate the originality and thought that has gone into all the details, right down to her funny, cross-eyed expression and the scalloped edges of her apron. It’s warm and comforting, and the enamel is such a beautiful translucent red. The only drawback for this bead, for me, is potentially its size & value for money.
Just a reminder, too, that is a Jared exclusive bead in North America, meaning that you can’t purchase it in Canada, either. :( It’s sold as normal in the rest of the world.
What did you think of this charm? Did it make it to your wish list?
I haven’t seen any of the charms in store properly yet. I thought from your previews that she was quite chunky. Stunned to see how petite she is. To be honest, it took several views of your bracelet to work out where she is.
So, the good thing about her being petite is that she is a subtle Christmas charm that you can easily be worn all year.
But like you said – is she value for money? I still love the tiny Christmas puppy from last year though.
Thanks again for your detailed review and have a lovely Christmas Ellie with your OH, family and fur babies.
Yes she’s absolutely tiny! But I don’t really mind that as she’s quite a delicate little charm anyway, and it seems to suit her somehow. The only thing that gets me is that she still costs the same as charms that are much bigger than her, so that rankles slightly.
Thanks so much, Lozzie – hope you have a wonderful Christmas also! <3 Thanks for reading and commenting!
This was my first purchase from the winter collectionthis year, together with santas house! Still on the hunt for the gingerbreadman dangle, which is already completely sold out in Holland. I tend to like the more ‘older’ designs. (Or the charms that are not availeble ?)
Looking forward to the price release of the CNY charm and the new spring release!
And I read somewhere about a Essence promo, buying a bracelet with 3 charms for a certain ammount of money, but forgot where I saw it. Do you have any info on that perhaps?
Have an amazing Christmas and enjoy your time off work, with your loved ones!!
Thank you again for all your amazing work and keeping us updated!!
Love from Holland
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Snap – those were my first two, as well! ^^ I also got the Christmas Kitten pretty soon afterwards, too. I am all about the Christmas beads again this year :D Oh noo, I’m sorry to hear that you haven’t found the Gingerbread Man yet! I’m still shocked they retired him. He is so cute and always seemed popular – hope one makes its way to you soon :)
An Essence promo where? I’ve not heard about that one yet but if you have any more info I can try and chase it up! :)
Thanks so much ☺️☺️thank you, too, for all your comments and for reading through all these posts! Hope you have a lovely Christmas!
I have just purchased the Mrs Claus charm and it’s lovely. Very quirky I wish there was a Santa Claus to match.
Perhaps they’ll do another one (their fourth – or fifth?!) next year! ^^
I just made myself two Christmas bracelets today (got started on charms at an outlet a few weeks ago and have gotten carried away with buying for free bracelets and ornaments). I have Mrs. Claus and love her. She’s great, especially because she usually gets short shrift. Thanks for the review.
Fantastic – glad to hear I’m not the only one with two Christmas bracelets aha! I agree, Mrs Claus is a more unusual choice and it was so nice to see her pop up in the previews. ^^ Thanks for commenting! <3
I love this charm! My partner and I were just talking about sexism tonight over a glass of wine (haha). I am delighted to see mrs claus represent for Christmas. I’ve asked my partner to get me mrs. Claus or the Chinese new year pig for Xmas. He said I am getting none of them (?!l) haha
Aha, that’s true – it’s simply outrageous that they produced not one but three Santa designs before we got a single Mrs Christmas charm! (I’m kidding! :P) Lol, your partner needs to get his act together! ;)
Hi everyone, i purchased the mrs claus charm this week along with some other christmas charms so i could receive the free snowflake bangle, i have to agree with everyone that most of the christmas charm released this year a bit on the small side but mrs claus is very lovely & detailed.
Hi Julie! <3 Glad to hear that you love her too, even though she's only small. The size is a bit of a minus, considering the price, but for me it worked out well as she slotted in perfectly in the space I had left on my bracelet! ^^
Ellie,
I love how enthused you are about this charm! You have encorporated her really well into all your designs, my she is dainty. I have to marvel at the detail Pandora can achieve when they choose. While this charm is not on my list, I love that they used the silver & enamel extremely well together to create her.
Your Christmas treats deign is my favorite, it speaks to my week. I have already over indulged in Holiday treats. Thanks to special events in my community & work place I have already had three pre Christmas dinners, and today people dropped off cookies & Cake to my workplace!
The gingerbread house on your Instagram bracelet is sweet! Is that a chamilia charm?
As always your designs are inspiring. I think I might have to find the original gingerbread dangle charm.
This past week I purchased the new gleaming gift & both the blue & red adornment charm. I put together a bracelet made up of the three most recent gift charms, the gleaming gift, clear pave spacer, red enamel gift box charm in the centre, pave spacer & the silver with pave ribbon gift box charm. I put an adornment charm on either end with the feathered clips that look like ornaments. The adornment charms are amazing! I have to find ways to use them in post Christmas designs.
I can’t wait for your next review. My husband agrees with you it has been a long week. He recently went Christmas shopping. He knew how much I wanted the Christmas ornament promo. I am confident that the gals at my local shop in shop helped him out. He finds the selection overwhelming, we do our best to narrow down the selection for hiim. lol
All the best,
Lisa K
I look forward to your next post.
I
She is absolutely tiny! I always look forward to reading your posts Mora, though this is my first time commenting. I recently visited my concept store and was kind of shocked by how small all the newer charms are… is it just me? And many of the rings look very white (a lot less oxidation) and thinner bands. They are just thinned out so that most people wouldn’t noticed but longtime collectors like myself can see a strange difference! I hope it’s just my imagination :(
Nevertheless, you always have the best bracelet designs and inspire me every time. Happy holidays!
I was going to buy one of the new birthstone rings, but didn’t like the feel of the very light silver band. I agree that many of the rings seem less substantial. And I loved the Mrs. Claus, but was shocked at how tiny it was, and didn’t buy it. I thought it was cute but oddly tiny.
Her size didn’t put me off buying her, but I was surprised I admit! But it worked well for me, as I only had a small gap left on my Christmas bracelet ^^
I was disappointed 2016 Mother’s Day dangle very thin silver, Pandora is cutting down material for sure, most of two toned charm have been retired so I go Pandora outlet store hurt for retired charm. Even thought I started collect since 2015 March, I like their classic piece not cz on everything.
I too noticed that the newer Pandora charms are smaller and feel less substantial than the older ones. Even when they restocked some of the older charms or rings, the newer batch has less oxidation. I bought a Forever Love ring wanting to stack with my Princess Tiara ring but the Forever Love ring was so ‘white’ that they look mismatched. In the end, I went to another store to exchange it for an old one that was on display so that the two rings look more ‘compatible’ in appearance.?
I ‘m quite new to Pandora, since I began collecting last January, so I don’t kno how older designs might have lookek. However, I find this information very useful, above all because I’ve notice the rise in prices in this period of time. Not that I can do anything about it, haha. But it’s always good to know.
I went to go get the Princess tiara ring to match with the My Princess dangle charm and they were totally different! The ring I saw was very “white” and my older tiara dangle had ‘too much’ oxidation to match. I think they will soon be bringing in new batches to match everything with the newer white look :(
They have actually started oxidising their jewellery less in recent years, and newer versions of older pieces will look much shinier than they did before. Jahndra at My Xpressions wrote an interesting little article about it – I’ll post the link:
http://myxpressions.net/2016/07/28/fyi-pandora-using-less-oxidation-on-charms/
She has some great pictures that show the difference really clearly!
I wholeheartedly agree with you about the downsizing of the charms. I purchased the new gleaming gift charm and it is much smaller than the previous two Christmas gift box charms that were released in the past two years.
I presume this is to keep their profit margin. It does make me selective about what I purchase. The dangles do feel less substantial and I guess using more pave or crystals in the bale means using less silver. These are just my guesses.
I am glad that others have noticed this change
Cheers
Lisa K
You are spot on, I think, about pave and crystals meaning less genuine metal in each charm – and they also can charge more for those beads, too, as people feel like they are getting more for the money, ironically! I do like the occasional pave bead, but I much prefer enamel as a rule – if you watch the videos of them making the enamel charms, there’s so much skill that goes into doing it, too!
Hi Sierra, firstly thank you! :D So glad you enjoy the reviews, they are so much fun to photograph and put together!
It is definitely not just you – a lot of the newer charms are far more detailed than older beads, and yet so much smaller. Mrs Claus is a great example of this, as is the Disney Eeyore or the Christmas Puppy or the Pre-Autumn koala bear. They’re also much shinier and lighter in person, and you can really tell the difference when mixing the two on a bracelet. I hadn’t noticed the rings being thinner, but I can believe that being the case..!
Hi Lisa!
Yes, she’s one of my favourite beads they’ve done all year! I love all things quirky, and enamel detailing is my favourite, too. <3 <3
I have been rather good up until now, but yesterday I made the most delicious banana and walnut cake recipe with cream cheese icing - so indulgent and yet so good! I was reading through the comments on this post last night with a piece of it and a cup of coffee and it was just wonderful, aha. I'm going to start making some Christmassy treats soon, though, as we're going to a Christmas party next weekend and then at work we're having a Christmas 'bake off' the week after! So I'm about to fall off the wagon with rather a thump, haha. Glad to hear that you've been getting into the spirit of things, too!
Yes, both the Gingerbread House and the Rudolph on that bangle are Chamilia beads from last year's collection. They are adorable! There was also a sweet Sugar Plum charm from that collection but it was unfortunately only part of a v. expensive gift set. :(
Love love love the sound of your gift box design! So festive and yet sweet and elegant at the same time. I would loved the Shimmering Gift, but I couldn't really justify it :( and I did very well with the charms that I did get, too, haha. Your husband sounds very well trained when it comes to Pandora! My OH is always nervy about choosing charms for me, too, but because I have so many already lol. He always makes enquiries before going off piste these days! ;) Hope that you get your ornament and some other goodies besides!
All the best Lisa! Thanks for commenting <3
Mrs. Claus is adorable: such a precious little grandmotherly woman! I will have to order online from Jared, since I don’t want to spend five hours driving to and from their nearest physical location. At least she is a charm that I can get. Thanks, Ellie for your sweet review and stylings.
Oh yes, you should definitely order her! ;) She’s such a cute charm. My second favourite, or perhaps my joint favourite, of the Winter collection, along with the Santa’s Home charm. :D Thanks for commenting Angie, so pleased you enjoyed it!
Hi Ellie, your post is amazing, and Mrs. Claus is very cute! I’m very happy, a friend is traveling in the US and I asked her to help me buying the 12 days o f Christmas, and early in the morning she called me and said that she got it, and it includes Mrs Claus, and also got me 2 Jared ornaments!! :) I can’t wait to put all the charms in the beautiful snowflake bangle. This was a hard year for me, so the 12 days set is the perfect gift “from me, to me” (not sure if this is the right way to write it) Your Christmas bracelet is lovely, I’m going to take some inspiration from it ;) You are very lucky to have time to enjoy with your family, I start my holidays the 24th, hope you enjoy Christmas and the delicious treats. Blessings.
Hi Priscilla, thanks very much! :D That’s so great that you got the whole Jared boxset! And the box is so gorgeous – that is going to be a very exciting haul when your friend makes it back from the US. My Jared ornament arrived yesterday and it is so gorgeous in person – you will love it, I’m sure!
I haven’t broken up for Christmas yet, I’m just counting down the days haha :) I finish for Christmas on the 23rd as well! Hope you have a lovely Christmas, too, it’s not too long to go now ?
Yes, thank you Ellie, my friend told me that the box is amazing!! I hope she returns soon. :)
What a great review, Ellie! Your photography and descriptions are so good. And I think Friday is a great day for a blog update!
The detail is very nice on this bead. I like red enamel and I think it really enhances this bead, and I love the cute gingerbread man she’s holding. The great detailing makes me think about the cool Chinese New Year bead coming up,
All of your bracelets look great! I love the warmth of your two tone Christmas Treats bracelet. I haven’t gotten the candy cane dangle yet either. I really like the updates to your full bracelet and pave star bangle. The red enamel on the beads (along with the color from the muranos) really adds just the right amount of color to your bracelets.
Thanks for the review and I’m looking forward to your next one! Have a great weekend.
Hi Judy, I agree with you, Ellie’s bracelet is great, I love the way she use the muranos, when I started with Pandora I didn’t like the muranos, but looking her styling I appreciate their potential. I’m so exciting too for the CNY charm!! I’m planning to make a mini Chinese design :)
Thanks so much Priscilla! I am a bit of a murano fiend, so I am glad that the reviews have gone some way to converting you haha. I can’t wait for the CNY 2017 bead either, I am moving my CNY design from my red leather to a silver bracelet and retweaking it in its honour ^^
Thanks so much Judy! ? So glad you like the bracelets! Pandora are clever with their red enamel, I agree :D The Christmas Treats bracelet was largely inspired by the 2012 Pandora Christmas campaign images, as I was feeling all nostalgic for older Pandora and looking through all the older collections. :D I think gold is lovely for Christmas, and I would love to see some more two-tone beads for the holidays, like they used to do.
Hope you are having a great weekend too and thanks for the lovely comment! The next holiday review will be up next week :D
Hi Ellie, thank you for a great review! ?I love the details of the Mrs Claus charm and got it together with the Santa’s house as well as the new Xmas tree charm when the collection was released last month. Though I love everything about this charm, I do find that it is a tad too tiny! It is such a shame that the newer charms do seem to feel less substantial compared to the older ones. I too wished they had a Father Christmas bead in a similar style but for now I just match it with the red enamel St. Nick’s charm. Have a wonderful weekend and I will look forward to your next review. ?
Hi Jen! Lovely choices :D I went for this one, the Kitten and the Santa’s House – I was also rather tempted by the Gingerbread Man but I really do have no room left for him! Mrs Claus is really small, but it’s not something I would mind, as they’ve still packed in an amazing amount of detail, if not for the price still being rather high :/ Have a wonderful weekend, too, and thank you for commenting ☺️next review will be going up next week – lots more to come!
Oh, isn’t she cute!. I totally agree with you about how different she is in person and how beautiful the red enamel is!!!!! I was stunned myself when I saw all the Christmassy reds on display. They are simply gorgeous!. Anyway, I won’be buying any of them this year as I have enough beads on my mind and my poor Pandora budget is already streched to breaking point!. This is an addition, ladies. We should go to therapy together, lol!. Anyway if I may go a bit off topic, you’re very lucky to get a free bracelet with your purchases. In Spain we are getting the jewelery box, as I had suspected so I’ll take advantage of it and will go on a spending spree sometime this week!
Merry Christmas to everybody!
Lol I hear you about therapy! I was looking through my jewellery box at all my bracelets last night and thinking ‘well, this is just ridiculous’, while all the while planning out two new designs to do at some point in the future!! And, on that note, I hope that you do go on your spending spree as that sounds really rather fun haha! :P
I didn’t get a free bracelet with my purchases unfortunately – I’m in the UK and there’s no bracelet promo here ? I did get the ornament GWP, though, which was almost as exciting for me :D :D
A very merry Christmas to you too, and thanks for commenting! :D
I love this charm, I got it the first time I saw the new collection! It is ideal for me as I love the smaller more detailed charms like the Arabian coffee pot and also the Christmas puppy from last year. The big blingy charms are lovely but not for me so much. Mrs Claus fits perfectly on my Christmas bracelet, I’ve been wearing it since the beginning of December because I am really pleased with how it is looking! There are so many lovely charms out this year, with just that tiny pop of festive red in the silver, and I just recently got the glittery red murano to pull it all together. I love your festive designs Ellie!
She was my first purchase from the collection too! I also don’t mind the smaller beads, I just like the price point to reflect the size a little aha. The Arabian Coffee Pot is only 29 euros, which is perfect considering its size and all that amazing gorgeous detail!
Your bracelet sounds delightful – and the red summer murano is the perfect festive bead, now that I think of it! Thanks for commenting Debbie :D
She looks so cute. I have two places left on my Christmas bracelet and I haven’t made the final decision as to what they will be yet. I’ve always really liked the old Christmas tree, tree of lights, I think, so I am desperately hoping that it will go into the Boxing Day sale ;-). I think that Mrs Claus would fit well with my design as it is not obviously Christmassy; I’ve gone for Gold rather than red and green (which I’ve already done in Lovelinks ;-)) so I think I could get away with wearing it at other times of the year when I need that colour :-D. I got a few Christmas charms that were reduced when I got my free bracelet back in October, the pudding, the snow globe, the sleigh and 2 dangly reindeer, plus 2 gold Muranos, which I didn’t think of putting on my Christmas bracelet until I saw how well they looked. In fact, I ended up getting 2 more as I thought that 4 would look better, it does :-D.
Ah, now that’s an exciting decision to make! I had something of the same problem with mine – there were three new Christmas beads that I knew I wanted and only one space left on my bracelet. Hence why I moved two of the less explicitly Christmassy beads elsewhere. The Boxing Day sale is a great time to look, though, and I do hope you find some bargains there – I think Rue La La also had some great Christmas beads at good prices, so do check there as well! :)
You could definitely get away with Mrs Claus and a gold design – that’s what I did with the festive treats design and it looked lovely in person. She’s so small that the little pop of red doesn’t really detract from any of the elegant two-tone :)
Yes, I’m going to take a look at Rue La La now they’re posting to here :-D. The pudding has a little bit of red and I have the robin on there too and you can barely notice it so a bit more won’t hurt, lol ;-). So far I’ve been really lucky with the sale charms, I didn’t want to spend too much on a bracelet that I’d only wear in December, especially since I already have a Lovelinks one. It’s good that they are completely different even though they are both Christmas themed charm bracelets, they couldn’t be much more different, lol ;-).
Yeah, the Swag sale was really good! I have also picked up a lot of Christmas beads through Rue La La or the Pandora UK sales, they’re a great time to stock up :D
This and the house were my two favourites and the ones I purchased she just so cut and detailed I agree with you I wish they did a farther Christmas in a similar style.
Those are my two favourites as well! :D Such cute Christmas beads this year – I was also quite tempted by the new Gingerbread Man after seeing him in person but managed to talk myself out of it!
Very cute Ellie! I didn’t get her (yet) but she is very cute. I have the Ohm Mrs. Claus which is all silver and goes well with my all silver Pandora Santa. does this Mrs. Claus not go well with the Pandora red enamel full body Santa? I thought they looked like a decent match but haven’t seen them in person.
Ah, I should have known that there were other Mrs Christmas beads out there! ^^ She’s very cute, too, and gets the bonus points for being an all-silver design, haha. The full body enamel Santa could go quite well with this one, but I just don’t feel they’re quite in the same style – I’d like one with a similar detail of expression. It’s just me being fussy aha!
Yeah, the Ohm Mrs. Claus is cute, I won it on Facebook in one of their Beadmas contests a couple years ago. I might break down and get the Pandora Mrs. Claus too, but then I think I would have to get the red enamel Santa to match ;-) Maybe the enamel is subtle enough that it wouldn’t look too off with my silver Santa
I think she’d look as nice with the silver Santa as she would with the enamel Santa – either would be a nice match for her! The silver Santa is quite small like her, I think they’d be a good match size wise!
Hi Ellie,
As I am not a Christmas person, I am not found of Christmas charms. But I have to admit that Mrs Claus is really cute…
And your styling are pretty as always