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

I LIKE TO BUY A USEFUL SOUVENIR ON HOLIDAY SO I SAY YABU.

the other day I was picking DD up from the car park of a theme park she had been to with her friends, and overheard a man, absolutely livid that they didn't sell souvenir fridge magnets!!

Pencils pens rubbers etc here. Dd is 8 and loves a souvenir. So to keep the peace we've agreed on stationary as at least that will get used and can go in the desk drawer.

The dc did buy me a purple dragon hatching out of an egg with my birthstone on from Spain when they went with grandparent. And other little trinkets that I cringe about. We have loads of parrots from Tenerife as they go there a lot as my parents have a place there. We've got a very small long window in the kitchen and have put them all there. (Hopefully out of view )

I buy a little snow globe from all my foreign trips for my desk, it's littered!

Oh, I love a good souvenir shop, I'd be in 'tat' heaven having a look around!
Anywhere with a good fridge magnet or snow globe is great.
As for a dragon hatching out of an egg ornament? Sounds ace!

Like KylieAteMyHamster our Christmas tree has decorations from places we have visited over the years, along with decorations that used to be on the tree when I was a child - no colour co-ordination here ??. DS loves to bring souvenirs home from trips he goes on without us!

We have a "cupboard of shit" at home where we display the most atrocious souvenir items found on our travels. DP found an actual straw donkey in Spain, which is how we started off, but I kicked his ass the following year with my papal meat thermometer from Rome (i.e. it had a picture of the Pope on it!)

Since then we have proudly displayed a woman-in-a-burka salt shaker, a pair of pants with a map of the Paris Metro on (in case the wearer gets lost, we assumed), and a fridge magnet from Oman with a close up of a bludgeoned shark (under the heading "fish market".)

They may be hideous but we regularly piss ourselves looking inside the cupboard of shit and on that basis YABU!

Cornish piskies
And violet perfume

They are on the tip of my memory from my childhood, please describe them a bit more!!

I think the Cupboard of Shit is a great idea! Your own little museum of crap.

I don't tend to buy souvenirs. I will buy gifts for people, but usually a local foodstuff that is not on sale back home. I go to supermarkets where the locals shop for a type of sweet or chocolate, or cake, that you can't get at home.

Perhaps the owner of this house buys them?!

I freaking love souvenirs. Off the top of my head, I have:

-Bletchley Park snow globe

• Minehead, Bournemouth, Warwick Castle, Bletchley Park, Edinburgh fridge magnets
• photo fridge magnets from the Oceanarium in Bournemouth and a couple of theme park rides
• postcards from Doniford Bay, Warwick Castle, the Natural History Museum, Tower of London
• keyrings from the Science Museum, Nat. History Museum, Tower of London, Bletchley Park, Warwick Castle, RAF Hendon, Eiffel Tower

Oh, and my Warwick Castle mug (it's huge, I love it!). There's definitely more. I have such a weakness for gift shop tat.

Got to start working on my tea towel collection. I desperately wanted a Wills & Kate wedding tea towel but DH put his foot down the bastard.

I'm very much liking the Cupboard of Shit idea. I could put my 9/11 snow globe in there along with the Calendar of Hunky Priests that I bought in Siena t'other year.

PENS! How could I have forgotten the pens. I have so many.... And bookmarks!

Kylie we do that as well. A friend of ours was going to Dubai on holiday and came back complaining that she hadn't been able to find an Xmas decoration for us!

Disclaimer - we hadn't asked her to find one for us.

I used to buy that kind of tat when I was a child... Now I buy tasteful objet d'art when I'm on holiday. :)

Smite you've got to LTB

Violet perfume??

Oh yes, that take me back ... more years ago than I care to remember, my late mum bought a set of Devon Violet scent and soap. The scent was pretty crap, but at least it smelled of something, which the soap didn't; it was completely plain

On taking it back she was told that actually that was okay, because it said on the box "violet scent and soap" which meant that only the first item was perfumed and not the second. The look on her face has put me off buying souvenir shit ever since ......

GlaceDragonflies - I think you may be right!

My bf buys rubbers, as in erasers.

My souvenirs comprise passport stamps. I even got a French one after passports stamps were no longer needed for Europe. I had to explain why to the officer on duty but I got it through schoolgirl French.

I used to buy the odd thing on holiday for a gift back home - something like local fudge or clotted cream - but never an ornament.

Now I just buy postcards to send to people back home.

Jesus Christ - a 9/11 snow globe? Really? It's an actual thing that someone has designed, had manufactured and sold?

My dd is also all over this shite. This is why I spend hours in these shops, just musing on these items in complete bewilderment.

I absolutely love " the Cupboard o' Shite' idea. It's like something from Father Ted.

Dd has a tabletop full of unicorns and shit like that. She added to her collection with a droopy looking fairy yesterday.

We were in Polperro, which is crammed full of these shops. Tea towels, magnets useful things I can go with...Cornish Piskies I just don't get....

Argh, yes yes yes to whichever posted above said that people give this tat as gifts. Whenever PIL go on holiday they bring us back useless souvenir crap that goes straight to charity, why they can't bring us back something nice like edible goodies I don't know, nope we want a threadbare beige teatowel that smells funny and says "i've been to [insert place name]"...except we haven't been there have we?!?

I buy leather bookmarks - love them!

We often buy a memento of some sort - usually a picture, or some pottery - never with the name of the place on though - ugh!

I think my SIli s wholly responsible for keeping the souvenir tat trade in business. Even when we only go away for 2 days, she will spend those 2 days in souvenir shops (which all sell the same shit) buying 'presents' for friends family and passing acquaintances.

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.

Kylie You must be me!!!

I like to get a new decoration each year like this. If we don't get one on our main holiday I try to find one at least on a weekend or day trip at some other time of the year. And yes our tree could never be described as tasteful or stylish but I love it!

Last year we went to Germany and I found the most AMAZING Christmas shop in Rothenburg ob der Tauber - this place Käthe Wohlfahrt
Poor DH thought he would never get me out and was seriously considering confiscating the credit card.

Funnily enough though I am a bit Meh about most souvenir tat.