To wonder who the hell buys souvenirs?

[Orangeanddemons]

Am currently on holiday in Cornwall. I love it. But every shop is crammed full of the most random souvenirs at top notch prices.

Things that totally bemuse me.:

A fake metal Merlin type figurine with a real crystal ball
A jewelled dragon hatching out of an egg
A china Cornish pisky pushing a wheelbarrow
Random little sayings on notices
Strange faerie type things with lots of hair.

I never see anyone buying any of this stuff. Yet every shop is stuffed to bursting.

Cornish violets perfume

YANBU
I prefer a nice tea-towel. DH likes a fridge magnet.
And the DC are on a constant mission to find personalised items.

As opposed to a real metal Merlin with a crystal ball?

A metal Merlin would be a good plot for a Doctor Who episode.

I think my two DD are financing the entire market in tacky souvenirs, and they would love all those things on your list. I like the odd postcard and a fridge magnet too.

Oh god id be in souvenir heaven id love dragon coming out of an egg I love tat and adore souvenir shops

I quite like mugs or glasses. My Harry Potter studio tour Tankard and Marauders map mug are my pride and joy.

I usually buy a fridge magnet from places I've travelled to. My fridge is like a map of places I've been! But nothing else, don't want to fill my house with tat!

Even worse is when someone buys you a souvenir from where they've been! I got an 'I heart NY' mug from a friend once... Why? She'd been not me!

They sound cool!

We buy pencils. Whenever we visit somewhere new, we buy a pencil.

I buy souvenirs from holiday destinations. We bought snowglobes with Nessi in from Scotland and fridge magnets from Skegness.
We so rarely go on holiday that I think it is nice for the children to have a physical thing to remind them of their holiday.

I buy snow globes.

Yes magnets pencils pens I got dd a fossil probably not real as there was trays of them other dd loves dragons and mythical tatt she has a few bits and bobs

Ooo snow globes that could be my new thing I have no more magnet room

Ohhh.... I used to love the violet perfume with the green pixie bottle thing... do they have that there?

Children buy these things - often on school trips, or if you're on hols, they want the souvenir . They are not my personal choice, yet my house is full of them, because I don't have the heart to get rid of them

We have a Wizard holding crystal ball (which has fallen off several times, and we've had to glue it back on). He is about 15 yrs old now! Sodding pencils all over the place, named hairbrushes (AAAarrrrgh) I am not allowed to throw any of them away, my children are now young adults, but these things hold memories.

My 19 yr-old son is particularly good at keeping "stuff" - we have a putrefied newt in a box, on a bed of cotton wool - it's been there for a good 17 years. Every time I try to dispose of it, nope, it gets rescued. He never looks at it at any other time, only seems to spot it when it's in the rubbish bin.

We buy tea towels. And fridge magnets from each holiday. And. Always something inappropriate/hilarious for dm for her kitchen - Italian penis shaped pasta anyone...?

I buy Christmas decorations so every year our tree reminds us of places we've been. Our tree would horrify anyone with a nugget of good taste.

I heard a girl on holiday say, "ooh they've got lighters with on, I collect these" and her friend said, "how many have you got?"

"Oh this will be the first one"

Friend's face was a picture.

You're in Tintagel aren't you? or Boscastle? Aren't you?

It's crap up there. You need to come further down.

My late grandmother. Her home was absolutely full of junk like this, we took her to seaside once and she insisted on buying this very cheapy looking pot tractor which had a clock on the wheel (think it only cost £1) and a hideous doll that's head span around and played a tune.

Wherever she went she came back with rubbish!

We buy tat when we go on our hols all the time. We often palm it off on other people .

OP, if no one was buying it the shops wouldn't stock it

The most fun part is that people usually buy these items as gifts...

I always used to buy bookmarkers from anywhere I visited and people used to bring them back from their hols or daytrips for me. Cheap, small and a good reminder. I keep them (100s now) in one of those sticky page photo albums.

Sadly, it seems, I can't find bookmarkers anywhere - it's all lighters, wind up torches or stationary.

We buy fridge magnets. They're on the fridge freezer and boiler. I also buy snow globes but am limiting myself to ones from "big" holidays rather than just weekends away and day trips. Was running out of room!

Christ, my kids are all over this crap like flies to shit!
We have countless amounts of tat from over the years, however in recent years I've managed to keep it mainly functional. Fridge magnets, postcards, edibles, pens, t-shirts, teatowels etc, rather than the teddies and snowglobes type we used to end up with.
So in answer to your OP, my DC!

My daughter got engaged just before we went to Barcelona just before Christmas one year. A REALLY popular Christmas decoration there (usually put in stable scenes) is various figures doing a poo. It's supposed to symbolise fertility and prosperity iirc. So we brought one back for her of a bride doing a poo!

The irony is that on her actual wedding day a year later she and her husband were suffering the most amazing gastric flu.

Right, that's outed me. Off to name change!

One of the big advantages of having grown up children is the ability to ignore gift shops entirely and be free of the accompanying tide of souvenir shyte that used to come home.

I am genuinely amazed when adults find this stuff irresistible. Although I must confess that DH and I once had a competition to buy the most tasteless 9/11 "souvenir when in New York. I won with a truly atrocious snow globe.