The One Travel Souvenir I Love to Buy

They say you learn something new every day. I try to make a point of it. But I have to say that the tradition of the caganer is my favorite new thing that I have learned for a long time! In fact, I am adding this to my Christmas music playlist:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJQkDOy9Mfs

Thank you for sharing. I have always bought a magnet when we travel for our fridge. Sometimes we buy an ornament when I can find one worthy of our trip and one that reminds me of something special on that trip. I just started reading these blogs this year and I hope I learn enough to help us all travel more. We make our first trip as a family (it's been awhile for a real vacation) and I will start the ornament tradition with them so they can start building their own stock of ornaments. Happy Holidays to you and your family!

We do the same thing and its my favorite part of putting up our tree. I loved seeing the wonderful ornaments you have collected over the years. i hope i can find a similar london one when we are there this summer, i really like that one

This post actually reminded me to go get the really delicate wooden ornament from Iceland that I had hidden in an old, super tick neoprene iPad sleeve stuck between two pieces of thick cardboard in my old laptop bag. We both had totally forgotten about it! So thanks for that!

This post also made me realize that we've bought an ornament on most trips we've been on too without actually doing it on purpose. We always like to pick up a knick knack or two on trips and thinking back on it most of the time it's been a Christmas tree ornament.

As one who just finished helping put the ornaments on the top of the tree tonight, I do not feel the post was overly sappy or a waste of time. We have stopped collecting "things" for the most part in favor of spending money on "experiences". Our tree helps us remember the amazing things we have done and look forward to more. We are running out of room on the tree as I have been collecting ornaments from trips back almost 20 years.

I like this post, because it reminds me of how I shop for souvenirs -- which is not very often. Only in my favorite places do I pick something up, and usually it has to be something useful, like a fridge magnet, shot glass, kitchen towel, chopsticks, tea glasses, or an item of clothing I'll definitely wear and love. Otherwise, consumables are what I choose, whether special chocolate, limoncello, candies, etc. But I love Christmas too, and a tree ornament would definitely qualify!

Right there with you. I just posted our ornaments from last year (see link below). Opening them up and reliving things is one of my favorite parts of decorating the tree. Currently finishing up a safari and we have some wire hippos! -- https://almostneverclever.wordpress.com/2015/12/08/this-years-travel-ornaments-2/

I find sometimes when I don't like the actual Christmas ornaments for sale (sometimes they can be gaudy and/or HUGE), I head to the keychain rack and pick something out. It's pretty simple to replace the key ring with a hook. I have an awesome Buckingham Palace carriage as a result.

I share this tradition too! So many towns have cute Christmas shops, and it's nice to look at the tree and think of the places you've been. My favourites are the kangaroo and koala in christmas costumes that I got in Sydney.

I always buy a shot glass! I have over 60 now, and even friends of mine when they travel bring them back for me. It's a nice cheap thing to collect and looks great in a display case. Great reminder of all of the places I've been 🙂

I thought of doing the ornament thing too, but didn't think of it till after many many trips. I struggled to find ornaments online for the places I had visited in the past so kind of dropped the idea.

The one thing I do have for every place I have ever been is a magnet.

My wife and I do the EXACT same thing! Glad to see so many other like-minded people out there. 🙂

However, this does come at a cost...we now have so many ornaments from our various trips that we have decided to expand to a SECOND tree next year!!

Great minds think alike. I also get something from every country I visit to hang on my tree. Just added a great torii gate that I got in Kyoto and a Korean drum. Always makes decorating the tree more fun.

My tree is decorated with keychains from places I've visited around the world. They're often easier to find than ornaments, though I've had problems finding keychains some places so I've gone with things that will hang.

I also buy ornaments from our trips especially from the Christmas Markets. I bring with us a US mail box that is flat and a roll of bubble wrap and scotch tape and I pack my own ornaments and hand carry on the plane. I also bring home the mugs from the gluwein at the Christmas Markets. We love reminiscing our trips over coffee.

Iceland? Did someone mention Iceland? 😮

Great tradition -- feliz fiestas to you and yours!

This was a great post!

A waste of time is when travel bloggers do those long boring multi-part "trip reports" with endless minutiae. Ugh, too many of those and I wander off to find something real.

Nice to hear about your family tradition. Merry Christmas!

We got married 5 years ago and started the tradition of buying Christmas tree ornaments of places we travel on our Honeymoon. We have been fortunate enough to take one overseas trip each year and now have multiple ornaments from cities and areas ranging from Japan to Europe to Jerusalem & Jordan last year.

We just visited Italy last month and feel like we maybe got a bit carried away buying 4-5 ornaments from different areas and cities in the country. We will run out of room on our tree if we continue to do that :).

We don't really buy other sounvenirs now, primarily just Christmas ornaments. Like many have already said, we've found it is a great way to bring back thr memories of places we've visited each year when decorating and enjoying our tree.