Merry Christmas Eve everybody! ♥️?♥️ Today brings my last Pandora Christmas review of the year, with a review of my favourite bead from the Pandora Winter 2016 collection: the Santa’s Home charm! Also known as Santa’s Grotto in some countries, this little bead has been a firm fan favourite, meshing Pandora’s classic attention to detail with some beautiful enamelwork.
Offering a hint of festive red but a little more sophistication, too, this charm was an absolute must-have for me! Read on for the usual close-up photos, and my final festive ideas for the year :D
Pandora Santa’s House Review
The detailing on every aspect of this charm is carefully considered, and just lovely – the ribbon on the door, the oxidised door panels, the pretty windowpanes and the little star in each of the windows. The gutter is picked out in little silver balls, and the snow on the roof is picked out in translucent white enamel.
I featured my Chamilia Gingerbread House last year in a review, which attracted a fair amount of notice at the time for its fun candy design and sweet little details, with many collectors wishing Pandora did something similar! Happily enough, this year this new Santa’s Home charm makes a lovely alternative to the Chamilia bead for those who are Pandora purists, and would rather stick to just one brand. It may not have the cute candy aspect to it that the Chamilia one has (it would also work kind of nicely in fairytale-themed bracelets – it would be perfect for Hansel & Gretel!), but it does have the same level of detail and sweetness.
This charm feels nice and solid, and the weight is evenly distributed, meaning that it doesn’t flip over so much when you’re wearing it. It tends to stay the right way up for me! :)
Pandora like to put little mottos and motifs on a lot of their charms these days, and the bottom of the charm says ‘In Santa’s Home It’s Always Warm’. I’m not sure that this charm really needed any quotations on it, but, if you don’t like script on your charms, it’s really not that noticeable – it’s more like a little easter egg. The oxidation is just slightly rubbed off on my ‘e’, but that’s okay! ^^
The charm is not the same on both sides, which shows nice attention to detail; the snow doesn’t quite come all the way down the roof, and the door is replaced with another little window. :D The other amazing detail, which you can see better in this picture, is that the individual bricks of the house are detailed in the enamel! I have no idea how they do this, but it looks just stunning.
I love the sides of the house, which feature a classic brickwork design, all nicely oxidised, and an adorable little star set into the roof. This exemplifies what I mean about this charm having the sweet details of the other cutesy Christmas beads, and yet managing to be rather neat and elegant at the same time!
Styling
My first styling brings a mini festive design, featuring red with a slightly deeper green than I’ve gone for on my own Christmas bracelet. The Fascinating Olive bead is perfect with the red faceted murano, while the starry clips set off the colours nicely.
I featured this charm in my review of the Starry Night Sky murano on my Night at the North Pole design – its red enamel is cute and festive, but not so bright that it can’t blend into a more sophisticated design. It goes really nicely with the deeper midnight blues and the oxidised chain!
I came up with another take on this sort of design, also, one which features a bit more colour. This is the Santa’s Home bead on my Northern Lights grey leather bracelet, which features the Anna and Elsa muranos to represent the Aurora Borealis, the Layers of Lace clips to represent ice crystals, and then the cute Polar Bear dangle as well. Also, as an aside – just look at the cute paw prints on the bottom of the Polar Bear’s feet! I had forgotten that little detail was there. :D
If you’ve been following my series of Christmas reviews this year, you’ll be very familiar with my Christmas bracelet by now, so I won’t show it to you properly again – however, as a way of tying up this review, this is a wrist shot of both my festive bracelets in action! I hope you are all wearing your Christmas charms, if you have them, too! ^^
Conclusion
So, in conclusion, I literally have no criticism to make about this charm – it is just stunning! Packed with cute details and yet offering something a little more sophisticated in tone, it’s no wonder that this charm has been top of everyone’s Christmas lists this year. The only thing I might be tempted to keep an eye on is the white enamel roof – white enamel does have a tendency to yellow, which is something that has started to happen to my Darling Daisy pieces, so that’s perhaps something to watch.
The Santa’s Home charm is $50 USD or £35.
I hope you all have lovely days tomorrow, and that you get what you’re hoping for under the tree! I’ll be back tomorrow with a round-up of Christmas promotions. <3
Did you get this charm, or is it on your wish list? :D
:-) Soooo cute!
Merry Christmas, dear Ellie :-)
And you, Claudia! Have a wonderful day tomorrow ✨?
As always your review is amazing!! I love Santa’s Home and your North Pole design is lovely. I only have the Xmas design I told you in another comment and this charm is in it, in the middle of Santa and Mrs Close. Also I made a mini religious desing with the Holy Family, the 3 Wise Men, the dove, the Bible and an Angel, maybe next year I can make more mini styles. Hugs and blessings.
Thank you so much! ? Your mini designs sound lovely, I hope you do make some more next year! Hope you had a lovely Christmas yesterday :D
This is such a lovely detailed charm! I won’t be getting this one myself as I tend not to go for the boxy shapes, just as a personal preference, but I do appreciate the workmanship in this, it’s like a tiny work of art! Your designs are beautiful as always, Ellie, they are so imaginative. I especially like the Northern Lights design, it is so pretty. I hope everyone reading this has a really lovely Christmas, and finds some Pandora under the tree! And thank you Ellie for your brilliant posts all through the year, they really brighten my day!
Thank you!! I found Pandora under my tree, hope you too!!
? I had the Christmas Teddy from last year, got a place waiting in my bracelet for that one! Thanks Priscilla!
Oh lovely! He’s a very sweet charm!
It’s not actually too boxy on a bracelet, or at least I don’t find it so, not compared to some of the more awkwardly shaped charm! The worst is the 2014 Club charm, that’s very hard to style haha.
Thanks so much Debbie! The Northern Lights design is a favourite of mine as the Elsa & Anna muranos are so pretty, but the leather bracelet is unfortunately too big for me and I hardly ever wear it. I really must try and swap it out for a smaller one, but that older grey leather is quite HTF these days! So, so pleased to hear that you enjoy the blog, that makes my day to hear – I hope you had a wonderful day yesterday ?
The house with the b I will and the candy canes looks very beautiful.
It’s a lovely bead – they have to be pretty special to tempt me away from Pandora ^^
What I meant was the house with the bow and the candy canes looks beautiful.
Hi Ellie, always love ur designs. Have a lovely Xmas. Looking forward to ur reviews next year. ??????
Hi Asma, thank you so much! Hope you had a wonderful Christmas, too – and thank you for reading and commenting! ♥️?
Hi Ellie,
This little santas house is so cute and quite charming. I especially love it with the polar bear design. Although the quotes can be offputting at times, in this case I think it makes the charm have a bit more meaning. Wishing you a merry Christmas ( hope we get some
More spring updates soon ) ?
Hi Alex! Absolutely, this is one of my favourite Pandora Christmas beads they’ve ever put out I think! :D I agree that quotes work better in some cases than others – I really quite like the ‘You Keep Me Warm’ on the snowflake two-tone pendant that’s grown on me – but on this one I could take it or leave it. I think the charm is so cute that it doesn’t really need it. Hope you had a lovely Christmas yesterday! <3 <3
Santa’s Home is stunning in person. I love red enamel for a Christmas design. Merry, merry Christmas to you, too and thank you for posting on such an important and busy day. ?
It is! There are so many sweet little details to pick up on, and the enamel is Christmassy but not too vibrant :D Thank you, Marie, I hope you enjoyed your day yesterday – I usually blog a little bit over the holidays as Christmassy Pandora is all part of the fun ?
There is a little Santa House where the kids make their yearly visits to Santa in the next town over from me that looks very similar go this charm, so naturally, I had to have it. It was one of two Christmas charms I bought for myself this year, and I love the clear cranberry enamel color and all its detail. I have it next to my little Christmas tree on my bracelet, and the scale is perfect. This was my only “had to have” charm from the Christmas releases, though I did also treat myself to the Winter’s Kiss snowflake dangle.
Merry Christmas, Ellie! I hope you have a wonderful holiday!
https://www.instagram.com/p/BOSxkkBg24A95fKy62jdFOyHmH8mnWGXdj_1iM0/
Gorgeous little Christmas design, Clair – I tried to give it a like but Instagram wouldn’t let me!
Cranberry is a really good word to describe the colour – it’s so festive and yet rather elegant at the same time. It’s lovely! This and Mrs Claus were my only two must-haves from this launch right from the first previews, but the Christmas Kitten did find its way home with me, along with the Starry Night Sky murano :D I keep wanting to get that Winter’s Kiss pendant, too, but every holiday season there seems to be something else to buy, haha.
A very Merry Christmas to you too, Clair, hope you enjoyed your day yesterday!
We just finished opening gifts between the two of us – the rest of the family is tomorrow – and it’s a Christmas miracle! The 12 days of Christmas charms with the lovely gift jewelry box was under the tree! I spent a bit of time redesigning my bracelets and adding a necklace to incorporate the new charms. Merry Christmas to you and yours! And to all
your readers out there, Happy Holidays!
Oh that’s amazing! I can only imagine how much fun it must be to get twelve Christmas charms to play with all at once. And the jewellery box is so gorgeous! I bet you had a lot of fun rearranging. A very Merry Christmas to you, too, and thank you for commenting! <3
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to everyone reading this blog :-D.
I’m looking forward to the Boxing Day Sale now and hopefully they will have plenty of charms that we all want :-D. xx
And to you, Pat! <3 The Boxing Day sale as a whole was kind of underwhelming (when you compare to Rue La La or the German eStore sale, which is amazing!!) but I've shopped around various retailers and found some pieces I've been wanting :D hope you did too xx
Hi ellie merry Christmas this is my joint favourite with the Mrs claus. It’s just so beautiful and detailed. Thank for the heads up about the white going yellow is there anyway of stopping it. Another great review and I love the different designs.
Hi Nicola! Merry Christmas to you too, hope you’re enjoying it all :D Mrs Claus is a close second to this one but I think this one just pips it for me! The white enamel issue is a tricky one. There’s not much you can to do stop it happening at all, but you can hold it off by making sure that the enamel doesn’t come into contact with any chemicals such as perfume etc and that you don’t wear them when you’re sweating or swimming etc. Just be very careful with them I guess :) glad you enjoyed the review, thanks for commenting!
Merry’ X’mas!
And you! <3
Merry Christmas Ellie! I love the detailing on this house… am tempted to start a Christmas bracelet myself :)
I received the Chinese New Year Pig for Xmas today …finally..yay!
A very merry Christmas to you too Judie, hope you had a wonderful day yesterday! You should totally start a Christmas bracelet ;)
Aw yay, that ones’s such a cutie! I can’t wait to get next year’s CNY charm either :D
Hi Ellie. I received Santa’s house for my birthday earlier in the month . For Christmas I received the poinsettia charm with the Limited Edition bracelet . I love everything . I’m a happy camper lol.
Any news on the upcoming Spring collection now that Christmas is over?