Italian Charms for Fathers’ Day

For the first 15 years of my life, I would get my dad the same lame Fathers’ Day gift: a coffee mug.  Perhaps the mug would be about my dad’s favorite hobbies life golf, or race cars; sometimes it would simply say, “I Love My Dad.”  I always put a lot of though into which mug to get and my dad always showed his appreciation of my gift.  But by the time I was 16 the cupboards were nearly bursting and I realized I had to come up with some other way to let my dad know how much I cared.  I was really at a loss for what to give him that Fathers’ Day until someone suggested that I get him a charm bracelet.  Now I know the word “bracelet” sounds a little odd in combination with a Fathers’ Day gift—I certainly though so at first—but I soon discovered what a perfect gift it was.

Italian charms are small watch-band like links with images or words on them that connect together into a bracelet.  You can make a bracelet with links that are all the same, or you can connect many unique and individual charms together.  The latter is what I chose to do for my father.  I began, the first year, by getting him a Nascar charm.  The following year he received an NBA charm; and the year after that I gave him a golfer’s charm.  Pretty soon the rest of my family caught on and my dad soon had enough charms to fill out the bracelet with all of his favorite things. 

Eventually the mugs I used to buy my father broke or simply disappeared (my mom may have had something to do with that); but my dad wears the charm bracelet to this day.  He says he enjoys wearing it because it reflects so well his pastimes and hobbies over the years, as well as the accumulation of the many Fathers’ Day wishes he received from his kids.  He loves to show it off to his friends and co-workers.  In fact, I have overheard him many times pointing out who got him which charm, which year, and why: “and then Jonny got me this charm with the fishing pole on it for Fathers’ day in 98 because we had spent the entire spring together out fishing…”

That’s right, an Italian charm bracelet for Dad.  Think about it; better yet, give it a try!  If you don’t like the idea, well, I’m sure your dad will always appreciate another coffee mug.