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

You must be in Tintagel.

DD loves souvenirs. She always buys a little keepsake to remind her of where we have been.

Yup - she bought them in Magaluf figures and was stopped by customs on the way back. I so desperately wanted to have seen her face as she explained why she had half a dozen giant penii in her suitcase

I collect keyrings but usually they are pictures which get put in a keyring. I have about 11 over the last 4 years which I love.

This thread reminds me of a plastic donkey my DM had on the shelf that a friend had given her as a souvenir...you put cigarettes in the box on its back and when you wanted one you lifted up the tail and a fag popped out of it's bum! made us kids laugh. My DPil were massive tat novelty collectors .

We buy Christmas decorations so every year we have the conversation and memories of where each one was bought. Its nice but means the tree is a total tat fest.

I always buy my teenager girls a shot glass each when we visit new places.

Does that make me a thoughtful mother or a very bad parent?

Oh wow, my dds acquired Cornish piskies earlier this year also in Polperro OP! From the sweet shop which does excellent pick n mix!

Ooh I love a souvenir, I have lots.

It has to be something relevant to where I've been though, even if it's tacky.

I have a little vampire bat brooch and a Jet locket from Whitby which I think are my favourite.

I hate when places have "souvenirs" that have no relevance to their surroundings.

My 11yr old ds buys cack like this. He'll only come on day trips if there's a gift shop.....

I quite like a tea towel. Or a book about the place we're visiting. Not keen on ornament-type things.

DCs were encouraged to collect postcards, easy to store and good to look back on without being tacky. They do, however, have quite a collection of tat that they seem reluctant to part with.

As a family we have a 'tackiest souvenir' competition that has been going for years.

I am currently the champion, with a (small) bust of Mussolini made from lava from Mt Etna with two bits of blue glass for the eyes. I gave it to DS to make up for papal jam spoon (last but 2 popes) from which the picture of El Papa fell off after a bit of use!

Oh magimedi, you've just made DH and I laugh. El Papa spoons.

I have a naff tea towel collection. The more retro, hideous and/or perplexing the better.

People buy them for me too - I bafflingly have one that simply says 'Lincolnshire' on it with a drawing of a ploughed field. I have never been to Lincolnshire.

Ahh, I used to do a tacky gift competition with my friend. It was fab looking for the crappiest item in a crappy gift shop. Things made out of shells were good.

She moved house and her DP threw them away! Personally I would have LTB for that!

I haven't actually been on holiday for years so haven't bought her a present for a while. May just have to go to the nearest seaside resort to start her collection off again! She will be so pleased.

Have you taken a stroll down the 'Royal Mile' in Edinburgh?

A positive surfeit of tartan shite, including a tartan shite Christmas Shoppe, flocked to by tourists year round.

The kids love it

those do sound pretty awesome but I do prefer a fridge magnet myself. so much so they have spilled over to the freezer and tumbledryer too

The Japanese do.

Another souvenir lover here. These days it's mainly fridge magnets, but DS, left to himself, will either demand some tiresomely generic shit or ^the most expensive thing in sight* and then cry (very recent memories of a big strop in the Scarborough Sea Life Centre over the £15 cuddly seal. At least I was able to resolve that one, eventually, by discovering a £1.50 miniature seal with a pencil up its arse...)
And my mum loves them as well. I am currently in very much Good Daughter status as I brought her back a print from York, which is the companion print to one she already had and Makes The Set.

My lovely late father always bought the tackiest, grotty things from his holidays. When he became too ill to travel he would buy treasures from car boot sales instead from other people's holidays This thread reminds me of my Mum's mock horror as I would burst out laughing at a plastic donkey carrying straw baskets or similar tat.

Short answer - my nieces

there's nothing too tacky for either of them to buy. The littlest one seems to go by the tackier the better rule

The champion tat souvenir buyer that I know has to be a lad I took on a school day-trip to Boulogne.

On the ferry back to Dover he came and sat with me at a table. He said that he had had a lovely day and had bought some souvenirs. He asked if I wanted to see them. He proceeded to tip out the contents of his carrier bag onto the table. He had bought about 30 identical, small, plastic Eiffel Towers. Astonished, I asked him why. He told me that he had counted up everyone in his family and bought them one each. He did not want to upset anyone, so they were each getting the same.

They were not even a souvenir of the day, given we never went anywhere near Paris.

They must have really loved him in the souvenir shop.

I have a friend, from his family I have inherited the game of buying the worst most tacky souvenir possible.

Turn it in to a challenge OP, tis fun