A few nights ago I was watching a Hallmark Christmas movie called A Little Christmas Charm.

The story is about a coat that was donated to charity with a charm bracelet found in a pocket. The vintage shop owner who purchased a box of clothes doesn’t remember where she purchased it from. Her friend and co-worker recognizes the charm bracelet must have sentimental value for the owner and is positive it was not meant to be donated. She wants to find the owner and return the charm bracelet by Christmas, and is joined in her quest by a newspaper reporter who thinks this will make a great feature story.

The boat charm

When I was growing up my father had a speed boat. It was about 15 feet long and we used it for water skiing and fishing.

One day when I was about 14 or 15 I’d been out on the boat and my Great Aunt Greta had come over for a visit. The next time I saw her she brought me a present.

A silver boat charm.

Very kind of her. She knew all girls my age had charm bracelets.

Except – I did not have a charm bracelet to put it on!

Not a jewellery girl

I’ve never had much interest in jewellery.

Good thing too cause I can’t afford it!

Being an outdoorsy girl, jewellery was not practical.

I remember one time I was riding my horse in the woods and a branch snatched an earring off me. I looked around for it, but it was never to be seen again.

And that is life around horses. Don’t wear anything expensive that can get dirty, destroyed, or go missing.

A charm bracelet

Seeing as how I now had a charm courtesy of Aunt Greta, my mother bought me a charm bracelet for my next birthday or Christmas, I don’t recall which.

My father had to help attach the boat charm to the bracelet with a pair of pliers, and off I went to school with it.

That would be junior high school. Yay Cloverdale Junior High!

A lot of girls in my class had charm bracelets, and whenever one of them wore it, the rest of us would crowd around and admire her charms.

Charm bracelets were pretty noisy to wear in class, and were distracting to other students. They jingled and banged against the desk when doing schoolwork.

Collecting charms for my charm bracelet

Now that I had a charm bracelet, it was time for me to start collecting charms to display on it.

Girls with charm bracelets buy charms based on their hobbies, interests, and places they’ve traveled to.

My charm bracelet began to fill up with a clarinet, saxophone, grand piano, and even a coffin.

Yikes! A coffin?!

Yes, indeed. A friend of my mother’s worked at Birk’s, a large jewellery store chain, and around Halloween she told us they were selling a creepy coffin charm with a lid that opened to reveal a skeleton inside.

Oh gotta have it! Halloween is my favorite holiday.

My Aunt Greta even bought me another charm – a jockey and horse. Perhaps we’d been to the horse races in Hastings Park on a day that she visited!

One charm says Sweet 16 on it with my name engraved on the back. I’m guessing my mother bought it as a birthday present. Any guesses how old I was? Ha ha!

I also have charms of the Eiffel Towel, Hampton Court, Niagara Falls, a Palm Spring road runner, and a Hawaii seahorse.

Most of my charms are silver, but I do have one that’s not. Just a trinket bought at the Sea Lion Caves back in the seventies.

Check this post for my 2018 visit to the Sea Lion Caves.

No more charms?

It’s been many years since I’ve bought a charm for my bracelet.

It appears one of the last charms I bought was around 1983, and it’s a silver sombrero charm that I must have picked up on a trip to Mazatlan.

Do I still wear my charm bracelet?

Forty years later I still have my charm bracelet but rarely wear it. I never did get into wearing jewellery.

I’m not into night life where bling like a charm bracelet can be worn.

If I wear the charm bracelet to work, I run into the same problem I did in high school. It clatters and makes a lot of noise as it dangles against my desk.

I like the bracelet and take it out of my jewellery box from time to time to look at it. Memories of my younger years. I just don’t have any occasions to wear it.

It doesn’t really have a lot of value, other than sentimental. Most of the charms cost between $5 and $10. Some are better quality silver than others. A couple are a little tarnished, like the bull and matador charm I bought in Spain. A couple of charms aren’t silver at all like the Sea Lion Caves charm. Cost $2 or $3 way back when!

Forty years ago I estimated the value around $200 based on the actual cost. Today’s value maybe $300. None of the charms are collectibles or overly extraordinary. They were all purchased at gift shops or Birks.

Charm bracelets are just for fun and to memorialize events in the owner’s life.

Do you have a charm bracelet?

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