What it is about collecting conkers that is so wonderful?

[TheKitchenWitch]

I find it's not possible to walk past horsechestnut trees at this time of year without automatically looking down for conkers.
We were out for the day yesterday as a family, and on the walk back to the car there was an avenue of conker trees - we were all at it, even DH was throwing stuff up to try and knock down a few, they were hanging there already split open and JUST SO DAMN TEMPTING.

And yet - actually, conkers are completely pointless aren't they? DS1 (11) had his pockets stuffed full and was absolutely delighted, and DS2 (3) got right into it. It was really fun, but did make me wonder why we do it and why it's so satisfying.

I’ve no idea but we live it too. We were collecting last week and dh and I may have had a conker match where I lost spectacularly!

Dd loves it and gets so excited looking for them amongst the leaves. It’s like a natural hide and seek game.

We love it too, we don’t live for conkers!

There are a few trees round here and every time we take the dogs out the kids are looking for them, pockets stuffed and they just have so many of them now in their rooms 😂

I saw a father and son looking for conkers in the park yesterday. There's something very quintessential about children playing conkers. I'm glad it's still a thing.

They are so brown and smooth and shiny. V satisfying. We introduced DS to the joys of conker collecting yesterday. He's too young to play conkers this year, so I'm planning to thread our finds together - or I might save them for a Christmas wreath.

Conkers aren't pointless,though. Without them,we'd not get a new generation of trees.It's one of the many nice parts of autumn,I think

I know the conkers themselves aren’t pointless in the grand scheme of things. But once you’ve got them home there’s not masses you can do with them really apart from crafts and a bit of decorating. It’s out of proportion to the joy of finding them.

I get the same thrill finding walnuts, although they at least get eaten.

Autumn is my absolute favourite time of year.

We have a conker tree in our garden and we're out collecting them the other day. You are right that it's such a joyful thing to do. The pleasure it brings is totally out of proportion to the usefulness (or lack of it). We don't even usually play conversation, but we collect them every year. I love it. Our cats love playing with them, they make a really good skittering noise across wooden floor so we usually end up with a huge pile of them under the various cupboards in the house.

They are just so beautiful and glossy when you open them. I've spent years dreaming of boots that exact colour.

They also keep house spiders away I’ve found!!

Used to love looking for conkers when we were children. I remember my brothers putting them in the oven to harden them up ready for conker fights. We still look for them now if we are out and about. I love finding the big, shiny ones. Also love finding big fir cones. I have a bowlful of conkers and fir cones in the kitchen and use them to decorate the mantlepiece at Christmas. Wonderful memories.

Tawdrylocalbrouhaha they would indeed be amazing boots.

Is there any way of keeping them so lovely and shiny?

mrswehiplington oh yes, fir cones too, I actually have a list of where there are trees with different sized cones on them so I can go and collect nearer Christmas especially for decorating!

The disease that is affecting horse chestnuts means our children's children may never know the joy.