Bringing back gifts from a holiday

[Jackolanterny]

My family has always brought home gifts from holidays and I’m not talking little things; pens made from shells or fridge magnets, I’m talking high numbers of expensive gifts…it can seriously feel like Christmas.

For some reason this is even more exaggerated when family goes to Disney World.

I’m now at Disney World and I’m worrying as we just haven’t budgeted enough to bring back gifts for nieces, nephews, siblings and parents. In fact, it’s really too expensive to buy gifts at all. We are having a great time, but it’s taken a lot of saving.

My family have said not to worry. They aren’t grabby at all, but I can’t shake the feeling of guilt. I’ve told them in the past not to buy for us, but they still do. I know I’m going to feel so embarrassed bringing back nothing.
WWYD?

Thank you

Not sure if you are still there or not but Dollar Tree was brilliant value for sweets and treats- a lot cheaper than Walmart. My DC recently bought loads home for their friends.

It used to be a real thing bringing home holiday gifts it got silly in the end because you would spend ages looking for them then people didn’t need them.

Years ago we ended up having to say we couldn't bring gifts back anymore due to luggage restrictions/travelling lighter after being stung with the cost of an extra suitcase.

We were visiting the US quite regularly and were getting an increasing number of people asking us to pick up everything from labelled kids clothes (Ralph Lauren etc), to trainers/converse, makeup or beauty stuff from Ulta/Sephora, various bags (MK, D&B, Coach, Kate Spade, Vera Bradley) huge bags of M&Ms, Bath and Body Works or Yankee Candles, hand soaps/sanitisers bloody bin bags at one point. Always, "I'll give you the money for it", never getting it. Just a whole lot of CFery. So we stopped it. They got used to it.

These days, I tend to buy little bits at home for my nearest and dearest...Amazon, TKMaxx, DisneyStoreUK outlet or sale and pass it off as "from holiday".

Walmart do all the keyring/mugs/tshirts tat fairly cheap. Just be careful about going over your luggage allowance. Certainly don't be going into hundreds/thousands of pounds of money for souvenirs...that's insane.

We used to buy for kids when we went on holiday and now we don't bother. It takes up time that you could spend enjoying yourself trying to choose some tat that will be shoved at the back of a cupboard after a few days. A shark tooth necklace might look cool when you're in Ibiza but it looks shit when you get back home (scrap that, it doesn't even look cool in Ibiza).

The gifts at Disney World are lovely but they're ridiculously expensive. Your family won't care, just enjoy yourselves.

At the risk of sounding like an ungrateful bitch: My SIL brings us a magnet home from every country she visits. It's like a tradition. Lovely, right?

I really really wish that she wouldn't. We have no magnetic surfaces to attach them to. Our fridge is one of the built in cupboard ones, even if it wasn't I wouldn't want to put magnets on it as they look awful IMVHO. I have a drawer full of magnets from places that I have never been to and am not likely to visit, they have no sentimental value. It would be different if I was all "ooh, this one is from when we went to such and such..." and it jogged memories but they don't!

I managed to "lose" some in a house move but we have soon acquired more. SIL goes on holiday a lot. 😂

You might feel awkward at first but you might be surprised that relatives will actually silently/vocally thank you for the start of the end of this tradition. There's one thing a bottle from duty free for those looking after your pet / a lift to the airport and another using the airplane like a sleigh!

Just don't do it. It's a bit of an odd tradition if you think about it. It's not like a far off land where its hard to buy things from if you really wanted. The Internet these days means people can buy whatever they want so it's only meaningful if you've gone to a local market and bought something you can't get here.

Yeah the magnet thing is odd. Why do you need a record of all her holidays on your fridge?

To me if somebody kept buying me magnets of their travels it would give me a vibe of Henry Henfield I'm considerably richer than thouuu

I'd love to meet the magnet batshit with more batshit for fun.

"SIL, all those fridge magnets you've given us throughout the years have been playing on my mind...it's been so sad them all lying in the drawer where no one can see them. All those amazing memories of your holidays! As you know, we have a concealed fridge. So I've had this brilliant idea..."

Whips out scrapbook/photo album

"I've put them all in this book, and we can look at them whenever we want now. Come sit beside me...let's go through it and we can talk about all your holidays throughout the years...here's Benalmedena...I think that's the first one, 2008? Can you remember where you stayed? How was the food? Ahhhhh here's Eurocamp. 2009. The poonami in the pool? Haha. We can laugh about it now, eh?"