Souvenirs 101

One of my favorite souvenirs is a set of four white round rocks carefully chosen from the beach at Étretat, in the Seine maritime region of France. They sit on my kitchen table, often rearranged in various ways. I visited this beach with my granddaughter when she was 16, and my niece when she was 17. They are a reminder of a very special day, in a very special place. And to celebrate the fact that I, at the age of 68, survived a ten day vacation with two teenagers, and was able to share this favorite place with them.

Starting collecting miniature buildings as a child; a traveling trophy of sorts. Not only does it bring me joy but I found a community of terrific people who also collect them. Who knew there was a Souvenir Building Collectors Society?

My favorite ‘souvenirs’ are acquaintanceships with people who live in the places I visit and books about those places and their history and culture.

The ultimate display of "piece of the rock" souvenirs is on the Tribune Tower in Chicago, where pieces of rocks from around the world (including all 50 US states plus DC and territories and etc) are embedded in the stonework. For awhile our souvenirs were thermometers - it seemed that a child spiked a fever on every trip, and the thermometer was missing from our toiletries kit. Once I had the sense to just leave one packed, that collecting ended. (FWIW the one we got in San Diego is the best.)

My wife and I get a traditionally dressed doll from countries we visit and friends will bring us back dolls also. My wife likes to bring back souvenirs for the grandchildren and their parents which I think is silly. for cost reasons it amounts to a magnet or key chain or coaster and frankly I don't think they really care. We brought back stacking dolls from Russia for our collection and some of the grandchildren like to play with them. But those are really souvenirs and we have to be sure not have the teeny dolls disappear in a 13 doll set. We made scrap books for some trips and those I think I best the remembrance. When we are no longer here, I imagine all our souvenirs will be at a tag sale. It's important to remember, that what we brought back is for us, it holds our life memories not someone elses.

I have a key ring from the annual Mule Days celebration in Bishop, Ca. I love every minute of that trip when I go and when I notice my key ring I think of a happy place to be and state of mind.

I used to get a souvenir of some random type when I traveled to different places, usually not particularly wanting the item and spending too much for it, but wanting some memento and wanting some purpose to roaming around in local shops. Eventually, I determined that the answer for me was refrigerator magnets, the tackier the better. They're cheap, they memorialize the visit, and they provide some direction to my shopping.

I buy art when I travel. Not big (difficult to get home) but smaller pieces. Canvas, jewelry, pottery. Something I cannot find at home, that I have purchased from a local artist. When I wear the earrings or scarf, or look at the lovely print on my wall, I am reminded of my journey, and how I acquired each piece. And the leather flats I got in Fez are making me want to go back to Fez already! Great price for great shoes, and I bought them in every color they had that day. Superb memory every time I wear those shoes.

Being a "piece of the rock" collector who literally saved a small stone, shell, or piece of wood (all picked up off the ground) from every country I've visited, I can attest that the motivation has been to maintain a personal connection with each place. Looking at and feeling, for example, a small rock from the Algerian Sahara evokes that experience more clearly than a photograph. I began the practice when my budget was $3/day, including air fare, for a year, and continued it on travels of any duration because it is so meaningful. For my family, I would buy presents directly from the craftspeople whom I met in villages. While these objects had no specific use in Western culture, such as a piece of Fijian Tapa cloth and Chewa beadwork from Malawi, they authentically represented aspects of people's lives as well as having their own intrinsic beauty. That's what I wanted to share with my relatives.

We have begun to collect mugs from our National Parks. Not the made-in-China mugs in almost every gift shop has but those hand-thrown from Dineen Pottery in Minnesota. Each one is different, beautiful and a reminder of a wonderful road trip.

I've collected souvenirs since I was 9 and traveled with my parents on an epic road trip from Pennsylvania to Alaska. I am very selective; said souvenir must be small and uniquely representative of the place. Now that I'm older and my house is full, I collect purposely tacky refrigerator magnets. My serious souvenirs are photos and I have a vision that I will spend my old age dementia looking at my photo albums and asking, "Who are these people having so much fun?"

I collected travel snowdomes, the ultimate kitschy souvenir. I have hundreds. Note I said, "collected". When I was young, the plastic domes all had the ubiquitous blue background, 3D molded handpainted panorama with city label. Most were assembled in Hong Kong and eventually China. I thought of a Chinese worker carefully arranging the memories, e.g. a camel, pyramid and the requisite snow together and then moving on to say, a surfboard, sand and plastic seashells. Did they dream about these faraway places or did they think it was consumer junk? Anyways, snowdomes became modern and precious and looked unintentionally more tacky: glass domes with gel, glow-in-the-dark holograms, flashy sparkles, flat printed images instead of figurines. It wasn't fun anymore to ask my friends and family to search out my desired snowdome on THEIR travels (although many stories returned with the object about the elusive hunt). Now I am 60, decluttering, no longer collecting snowdomes on travels only memories. Except perhaps while wandering antique malls and spotting a faded gem like an old friend.

Great stuff! We also talk about this in Tourism and Material Culture Studies. Things reveal a lot about the people who own them.

For many years, as a backpacking globe trotting gypsy, I NEVER bought any souvenirs. Not only because I did not want to spend the money but I did not want to carry anything extra in my backpack. Today whenever I go somewhere I might bring back a magnet but everything else I return with is either edible or drinkable. Sometimes when I am in a restaurant I very much enjoyed I ask for a business card. Then I use the magnets to hang the usually interesting or colorful cards on my fridge.

I haven't bought a souvenir since I was 10 years old, but bring back shells, rocks, twigs, leaves, flowers, etc. To people who come to my house they look like what they are, but to me there are memories and stories attached to each item.

I look for silver charms. I have a charm bracelet, and most jewelers can solder a charm or a small pendant to my bracelet in a few minutes. The merry jingle whenever I move my wrist reminds me of how much I’ve seen, and done. It also doesn’t take up any space in my luggage.

I rarely buy things while traveling, but I do look for a wine glass that somehow remind me of the place. Sometimes kitschy with the name of the location, but usually more tasteful and subtle. For example, in a small boutique in Thailand, I found wine glasses with small elephants etched in a band around the bowl. At home, each evening as I reach for a wine glass, I think "where shall I go tonight"? Also makes for fun at parties, and no two glasses are the same!

This is a delightful article. Perusing a souvenir shop lets one's mind wander and dream. It is always a pleasurable challenge to find the least tacky thing (at least to oneself) in a souvenir shop. I used to lovingly purchase a Christmas ornament everywhere I went. That way you have happy memories each year when you put up your tree, and then it all goes back in a box until the following year. I have since given up this routine and have taken to buying food or beverage items that I look forward to consuming back home. And yes, I also buy the t-shirts.

I buy an ornament for the Christmas tree related to the travel and date it. Each year we reminisce about trips we took when we decorate the tree.

When I travel I pick up a rock. I write a little note on the stone noting the date and location with a sharpie. I might add something telling me who I'm with. Then I put it with all the other rocks I've shaved over my life time. Or I give on e to friends as a souviner . It's free, and has a zero carbon foot print. And it's nice to keep a piece of somewhere you visited.

Given that a souvenir is a thing that is kept as a reminder of a person, place, or event, I have never understood the practice of the traveler bringing souvenirs back to those at home who had not shared the experience. Please explain.

I just got back from a trip to Disneyland, king of the souvenir. Bought some clothes (lack of a jacket on a cool evening will do that), a couple of books, and my favorite souvenir, Christmas ornaments. There is nothing more fun than unwrapping that ornament in 5 years time and remembering that trip. Plus, no additional clutter in my house, day to day. And yes, we did do "local art." Had a silhouette done of the family on Main Street. Amazing what that guy can do with scissors and 10 minutes time.

In a decluttering frenzy, I was just about to Goodwill some old souvenirs. Then I read this piece. And I didn’t part with those relics of place and time. Glad I didn’t, and now I realize why I shouldn’t.

“Nobody sits us down and tells us to collect objects when we’re young,” except in my family. We were expected to have collections in the 1970s--I collected porcelain dogs, license plates and all things music; my sister collected rug hooks and souvenir spoons. It gave us something to buy (read: at which to throw away money) when we visited a new place, and helped to guide the purchases of our relatives at birthdays and holidays. It was mindless, superficial, impersonal and wasteful. My daughter, who is kindergarten, was told by her school during the first week of school that she needed to start a collection (of 100 objects) as a way to practice counting. There was a celebration on the 100th day of school, and everyone brought in their collections.

Taking photos seems to be the primary activity of travelers these days. I sometimes wonder if they actually experience being in a particular place or just have a photo memory of it. I shop for souvenirs when traveling, but have found that purchasing something utilitarian and lasting brings me the most pleasure over a long period of time. Kitchen utensils, tools, pitchers, table cloths, etc. bring back vivid memories every time I lay hands on them. For a moment, or even longer, I feel I'm back at the shop and place in time when I purchased them, even if it's years later.

I challenge the author's opening quote. Our parents – and everyone else we see – teach us to acquire through their every example. Acquiring, owning, collecting, hoarding... all learned behaviors, based on a society founded in fear, greed, and the faulty assumptions of "survival of the fittest". It seems that even in its fluff pieces, like this one, the Times has lowered its standards of veracity.

Without trying to sound elitist, my favorite souvenirs are items i find; a shell, a matchbook written in a foreign language. I will buy products for the graphics such as soaps, or packaged goods , items I would never see at home.

We usually buy a piece of non-mass market artwork from a local artist. In that way we support artists and have add something beautiful to our home. We are running out of wall-space.

The Galeries Lafayette in Paris sells Eiffel Towers made in France.

Listen to the Billy Joel song “Souvenir.” It’s great and it captures the sentiment of this story.

In the mid 1990's, in my mid-20's, I travelled the world. I thought it would be enlightening and educational. Having hawkers try to sell me souvenirs and tchotkes (mostly cheap and plastic but not necessarily)everywhere I went, my takeaway was that "we paved paradise and put up a parking lot." We don't need souvenirs. We're chocking in stuff. Read about the great Pacific garbage patch if you don't believe me. Over 20 years later, I now not only continue to question the purchasing of souvenirs when I travel, now that I know about Climate Change, I question the very act of traveling. Simplify, simplify, simplify.

No dust catchers for me! I buy souvenirs that I actually use at home. The kosher salt container next to my stove is lovely blue and white Russian pottery with "salt" spelled out in cyrillic. A lovely pierced Deruta fruit bowl from Italy. Quimper serving platters. Antique covered canisters found in a street market in Shanghai. Hand-carved wooden bread bowl from the market in Otovalo. A small silver punch bowl from London. Linen tea towels used daily in my kitchen - always commemorating places and events. Memories that I live with daily.

When travelling overseas my souvenir purchasing tends to be focused on finding local craft persons and engaging them in a conversation about their craft and their life. The physical souvenir is a remembrance of that interaction with another human being. There are other aspects of purchasing souvenirs that should be considered.

On my travels, I like to collect menus from the various restaurants I visit. Most of them hang framed in my kitchen at home, fond reminders of the places I have been. Steve www.travelingprofessor.com

What ever happened to "take nothing but photos, leave nothing but footprints?" Seriously, as I get older, and have more possessions - and try to lighten THAT load! - I realize how photos are the best souvenir. They take up the least space, and not only do you remember the place but that moment where you thought to yourself "I want to bring that memory home...." Susan expat, now in Ireland.

I have a few souvenirs from my travels, some t-shirts and prints. But my most valuable souvenirs are the many photographs I've taken as they provide me with a tangible memory of the places I've been along with the emotions I felt at the time. Trinkets and other objects don't do that for me.

I love buying useful cooking items when abroad. So when I use the wooden spoon from Italy, the grater from Vietnam, the cleaver from China it brings back lovely memories.

I love this story. I collect various items in my travels in order to remember or relive those experiences, usually a magnet, t shirt, fragrance, or piece of fine jewelry. But I like to think my choices are unique in design and not of the mass marketed variety. Also, I have been know to pick something used, worn, damaged as well-all the more real and truly lived. My collections are particular to the experience-magnets related to islands, sailing, Caribbean for example. I will later scour ebay for a memento I have missed on my trip, but never buy one for a place I haven't been, or a concert t-shirt for a band I don't listen to or concert I didn't attend. But I also like truly antique souvenirs, bracelets and brooches that literally say "Souvenir", dishes, covered boxes, mugs with names and places on them. I find them all so charming and they enliven the object itself with images of place and time. Perfumes naturally bring up memories of place and season. At 63 I wonder if I will eventually forget and so keep track of places I've been-we all get older, and as much as I like to divest of "stuff" I find mementos are a really important part of the journey. I am a cynic by nature but a total romantic when it comes to travel! This year I will finally go to Pompeii, if that gives you an idea. I had once bought a vintage photography book on Sothebys.com from the 1870s and for many years that was a place I longed to visit. Can't wait! Thank you for this lovely story!

A friend has a different set of souvenir categories: 1. Large 2. Expensive 3. Heavy and 4. Breakable. You are a true explorer when you check off all four with a single souvenir.

I work in second hand selling (in a brick and mortar vintage shop and online). Everywhere I go looking for stuff to resell, I see travel souvenirs. In particular I have noticed a category not mentioned by the men associated with this article: vacation fashion mistakes. How many women have fallen in love with the local fashions, jewelry, hats, scarves or traditional clothing of another culture and brought it home, only to realize that their sleek leather jacket, feathered earrings or colorful embroidered top looks all wrong at home? It happens a lot, judging from the huge volume of these items I find.

Souvenir is a French word meaning memory and souvenirs help you hold on to memories. When I was a teenager, I worked at a job and looking back at my notebooks, I can barely understand the work. But I kept my hard hat with my name on it and it brings back all the feelings.