It’s Christmas time! That means decorating a big pine tree with all your favorite ornaments, drinking eggnog, spending time with your family and giving them their favorite gifts. Gift giving on Christmas started around 336 CE when the story of the Biblical Magi gave gifts to baby Jesus on his birthday, December 25th. Not only are gifts given on Christmas, but also all month long for December birthdays!
December’s birthstone is blue zircon, or often commonly used, blue topaz. This gemstone is a light blue, but still darker than aquamarine. Zircon comes in different colors of yellow, red, green, brown and blue. This beautiful gemstone is a 6-7.5 on the Moh’s Hardness Scale. This means that we don’t recommend it for daily wear as it is much softer than other stones. Zircon that was found in Australia is 4.4 billion years old, the oldest mineral on earth! Many scholars believe that the stone’s name comes from the Arabic word zarkun, meaning “cinnabar” or “vermilion”. While others believe that the source is the Persian word zargun, meaning “gold colored”. During Victorian times, zircon was very popular and was common in English estate jewelry. There was a gemologist named George Kunz who loved zircon so much that he proposed a new name for it, to try and make it more popular. This name was “starlite”, obviously it didn’t catch on.
With Christmas being right around the corner, we are here for all of your jewelry needs!
La Masters of Fine Jewelry Temecula have opened up extra days in December, so please see our Holiday hours below.
December 3rd through 14th:
Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday from 10AM-5PM
December 17th through 23rd:
Open everyday from 10AM-5PM
December 24th:
10AM-3PM
December 27th through 28th:
10AM-5PM
December 30th:
10AM-5PM
December 31st:
10AM-3PM
Closed January 1st through 6th.