Blue Topaz, Tanzanite, and Turquoise – The December Birthstones

Finally, it is December! The holiday season is here, and everyone is in a mood to celebrate and get together. But most of all, and this is the spirit of this season, people like to give gifts to their friends and family during Christmas. Gift-giving strengthens our bonds with those we love, and peace and harmony can be felt everywhere.

Originally, there was only one birthstone for each month. But over the course of the years, people have added one or two more birthstones for some months for several reasons, one being the very prospect of giving gifts to our loved ones. Some birthstones were too expensive for some people to give to their loved ones as presents, so more options were added as time went by. The month of December is a perfect example for this. Initially, the birthstone for December was blue topaz, which is a very costly gem. Blue topaz is produced by treating colorless topaz. This process was discovered through experiments in the 1970’s. This makes the inexpensive colorless topaz so much more beautiful, and consequently, expensive. Like the diamond, a topaz’s value is determined by its 4C’s: color, cut, clarity, and carat weight.

Besides being very pretty, the blue topaz is also known as the jewel of love. It is apparently a charm to represent romance, deep love, and loyalty to one’s significant other. It is also a stone that represents peace, calm emotions, and is said to be very helpful for meditation and connection to spiritual beings around us.

Giving presents has always been popular during the Christmas season, and jewelry, especially those made of topaz, was sort of a go-to choice. But since so many people craved an alternative another birthstone was added for December babies: the turquoise stone. It is an opaque stone that can have a color of blue to green, and even though it has a range of prices depending on its quality offers a great option other than topaz. Aside from its popularity as a gemstone, it’s also quite popular among collectors as an ornamental stone, as it is said to symbolize femininity, wisdom, serenity, wholeness, tranquility, sophistication, and culture. 

It is also known for its ability to attract people and money to whoever possesses it, and was very popular. New Age healers also recommend it to people who have fear of speaking in public. If you wear it as an amulet or a ring, it’s supposed to make you more confident, eloquent, charismatic, and impactful. Suffice to say, many people were very pleased when this stone was added into the roster of December birthstones.

But as with many gems, there are turquoise stones that are very high-quality, and there are also those that are low quality. The high-quality turquoise stones were, despite being less costly than blue topaz, still pretty expensive. And so, a third option was born. 

The tanzanite is a relatively new gemstone, discovered in 1967 but only gaining worldwide popularity many years after. Because it is relatively new compared to other precious stones, tanzanite does not have any spiritual, mythical, or otherwise mysterious powers and symbolisms associated with it. It is, however, very rare. It is rarer than diamonds and is one of the most sought-after gemstones in the world today. Prices skyrocketed when some crucial mines collapsed in the late 90’s in Tanzania.

The one thing that is common among all three stones, as you might have noticed, is that their common property is their blue color. Quite a good similarity between them, don’t you think? Especially because, for most of the world, December falls into the winter season, and these gems were deliberately set as the birthstones for this month partially because of this. To say it simply, these gems’ blue color matches the cold, icy winter, and the symbolisms behind the color blue, calmness, wisdom, friendship, are all in perfect harmony with the Christmas spirit.

So which of the three did you like best? Please visit our Angelucci Jewelry website and let us know your thoughts! Do you want to custom-design a present for yourself or your loved ones this Christmas? Then check out our custom ring builder. We will be there to guide you all through the process. And make sure you don’t miss our other educational content as well. Merry Christmas!