Holiday souvenir…. what do you bring home?

Menorcan leather sandals.

We usually bring home something hand crafted in the area we're visiting, or local food delicacies.

I love to bring home memories and I’m lucky enough to have traveled to via cruises and an adventurous oh.
I have a small painting from Kenya of Masai warriors, a have Woven basket plate from A river tribe in Panama, the colours sadly faded, a Vietnamese picture made from something shelllike. A lace Doily from Bulgaria and the list goes on I love the memories.

Jewellry or bags for me.

On a visit to a bazaar in Tunis I bought some leather sandals for myself and some leather bags for some nieces. I wore the sandals quite happily during the holiday and the bags got wrapped up immediately and packed in the suitcase. When we unpacked at home the smell of camel was dreadful - we hadn't noticed it while they were hanging up but after being packed up for nearly a week it made us gag. We were a bit stuck because the others all had presents and we had nothing else to give the nieces. The bags were hung in the fresh air for a few weeks and the nieces loved them. We noticed they were never used though - I suspect once they smelt them in the cupboard they were rapidly consigned to the bin ? They were never mentioned again ? ?

Me too ?. My garden is full of pebbles from my holidays x

Lucca

Often clothes which seem wonderful at the time…..
Actually I am getting better and have brought back some nice garments and jewellery.

Really nice cards from museums,

I know what you mean about the clothes. That floppy dress from a French seaside place... not so great in suburban London..
I don't bring food back from holidays generally as pretty much everything can be bought here. Though I did bring back a huge chunk of Parmesan cheese from Italy as it was so VERY cheap!

Rose and violet oils plus a multitude of others from Turkey, ditto the Turkish hammam towels in every colour going to use at home at the gym and wear around the house (if ever it gets hot).

Always like to browse in Turkish pharmacies too for unexpected treasures (though the very handsome pharmacist at Antalya airport always tries to sell me some viagra - despite me clearly not having a w%£&y (sorry)

Pearls, Clinique cheap miniatures and silk from Hong Kong in the olden days

Oh, and “a bit of a rock and seashell collection” (which is a gross understatement)

Jewellery and handbags normally ?
Although Tunisia I was offered 50 camels in a marriage proposal ??

I always try to get something for our garden - a Windchime, ornament etc. I try to resist buying anything else for the house. Also, I have a weakness for earrings, so if I see some that are particularly nice, I will buy them. My husband will buy clothes if he sees something he likes.

My only trips now are to UK. so self raising flour, marmite, Coleman's mustard powder, jelly powders, Jcloths.

In earlier days most of my travelling was to France, India and Sri Lanka.

France: cheese, coffee, wine, drinking chocolate powder, chocolate.

India: spices, saris, fabrics, silk paintings, ivory minatures, paintings, moonstones, lapis lazuli, clothes, brassware, carvings, agerbhatti.

Sri Lanka: gemstones, fabrics, wall hangings, brass elephants and pots.

America: clothes, clothes and more clothes!

I never go shopping on holiday! I can’t bear it at home.

Always at least one cookery book with recipes from the country visited.

Other things depend on which country we have been to.

That sounds beautiful Nannan.

We always try to buy a Christmas tree ornament wherever we go, then, when we put the tree up we also have a wonderful walk down memory lane.

We always holiday in the same place, our caravan in Devon so I don't really need souvenirs as we're back there every few weeks. I do occasionally pick up an interesting piece of flint or pine cones from the woods surrounding our site, and more frequently, buy lace bobbins from the museum in Honiton (one of my favourite places to visit), as I make lace and enjoy collecting and using them. Apart from that, just lots of pictures of the surrounding woods as the seasons change.

Christmas tree decorations, fridge magnets, pasta (one shape I can’t get in UK), Parmesan. I have been known to take empty jam jars and make apricot jam to bring home.

Deeda - strega! My Dad's Italian heritage meant he loved the stuff.I drink it whenever I see it
One of the mothers in my teaching days brought home a husband....( not the one she left with)

Something from the sea. Have shells and coral from many exotic places as well as countries with very cold climates. If not near a sea and that would be rare, something from a lake eg a pebble. Have them in bathrooms either stand alone or in glass pots. GC have loved hearing where they are from.

My DH has a thing for red glass,told me his mum said it was lucky. So always bring a bit back ,from local glass factory or hunt markets for something different

A bit of local pottery - we mainly holiday in the UK and I have a nice collection from some lovely places. A friend who holidays in the UK used to take a little bit of sand from the beach wherever they were staying, as a memento. She stopped after someone told her that all sand on UK beaches belongs to the queen and she could be prosecuted !!

Like a poster upthread I too have a beautiful scented hardy geranium taken from a snipping in gardens opposite the Miro museum in Barcelona. Its grown and grown. I have loads of seashells from New Zealand dotted around garden. Always get a fridge magnet for AC. I often come home from local beaches with interesting small pebbles.

Usually some kind of 'local produce' that we can't get around here. We holiday in Scotland and there seems to be a shortage of foodstuffs from there, but no problem in importing specialist food items fruit / veg / meat / fish / dairy products from The Continent though! Orkney Cheeses are particularly good, as are 'Organic Aberdeen Angus Steaks'.

I also like to buy coasters with pictures of local places on them - especially if I can find a pottery making them individually.

Quite like a new Tea Towel, or two, as well .

Gin
Rugs
Fabric
Art

Heart-shaped stones. On beaches DH and I collect small stones in the shape (however vaguely) of a heart. At the end of the holiday we go through them and take home with us our two favourites (the best heart shapes). We now have a glass bowl full of them.