I’m a bit of a packrat. I try to be a tosser-of-all-things-no-longer-useful, but it goes against my personality in a big way! I’ve been trying to downsize our stuff, so I didn’t want our trip to the Savvy Blogging Summit in Colorado to add to the clutter that I’m trying to clear.
We aren’t frequent travelers, so when we go somewhere, we want to bring back some little momento of the trip. We started a little traveling tradition about ten years ago. Each time we travel, we try to find a Christmas tree ornament that is unique to the location we visit. We want it to have one of the landmarks on it or have the city name on it. We have a gold one shaped like the Governor’s Mansion in Williamsburg, a shiny skyline of Dallas, and now a wooden cutout of the mountains in Breckenridge.
There are two things I like about this souvenier tradition. First, it’s frugal. You can usually find a Christmas tree ornament for $10 or less in one of the gift shops. Second, we get to remember our travels (few as they are!) each year as we decorate our Christmas tree. You hear a lot of remember when and what a great trip talked about as we hang the ornaments. It extends the vacation and brings us back to the fun we had traveling together.
The best part is that this year’s souveniers don’t become next year’s donation to charity! That works for me!
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Great Idea and practical too as often momentous are completely useless ornaments.
And just think….. You won’t have to dust them every time you clean the house! 🙂
Love this idea! Wish we would have done this with our most recent vacation spot – Grand Canyon. Ugh!
If you still want the ornament, you can probably buy one online. I’m sure that the retailers in that area have websites too. 🙂
What a great idea! I’m not a pack-rat at all… if anything, I probably throw way too much stuff out. I despise clutter. As a result, I can probably be a bit of a Scrooge when it comes to letting my children choose souvenirs. This is a great idea for collecting something to treasure and reflect on every year without generating a whole lot of “stuff”. Thanks!
Oh to be less of a pack rat! 🙂 I’m glad this was helpful. It sounds like it might be a good middle ground between not having clutter and still having a treasured souvenier from a trip.
We do the same thing! We started doing that a few years ago and have a nice little collection so far!
Isn’t it fun to reflect on the trips that you took?!? 🙂
That’s a great tip! Sentimental Christmas ornaments are the best.
That’s a great idea! I love having meaningful, sentimental ornaments on the tree instead of a box of glass balls picked up at the local discount store.
Since my daughter is so young (she’s 5), I’m hoping that it will help her remember the trips that we take too!
That’s a great idea; we’ve been doing this ever since our honeymoon. OK, I’ll admit to a few refrigerator magnets too…but again, they serve a purpose!
@Rea, I wouldn’t mind the magnets either. Like you said, anything that serves a purpose is a good choice! My parents once brought back a deck of playing cards from their trip out West. That was also a great idea!
Great tip! We do this, also!
We have done the same thing for about 20 years! The kids tease me about “finding an ornament while on vacation”. I purchased a slim 6ft christmas tree and I display the ornaments on their own tree at christmastime. The kids really enjoy reliving our vacations via our ornament collection.
Wow! We don’t quite have enough to fill a tree, but I LOVE that idea! It’s your travel tree. What a great way to remember!
We always do the same thing! I’ll either get an ornament or a magnet, sometimes both. I use magnets regularly to store the clutter on my fridge, and it’s fun to see little reminders of our travels.
In fact, right before I stumbled on this post, I was putting away our $7 Myrtle Beach Christmas ornament.
How funny! I honestly hadn’t thought of the magnet idea. I’m always searching for magnets for my daughter’s fridge artwork, so I’m going to have to add that to my souvenier shopping list next time we travel!
Here’s another idea for “Frugal Souveniers Without the Clutter”. We travel quite a lot. Several years ago I started sending picture postcards home with notes about our trip and the places we were visiting. It’s fun to come home and find them in the mail and when we go overseas we will sometimes beat them home and find a nice surprise later. I keep them all in a basket on a shelf. We like to look through them and they are also great conversation starters! If you loved Colorado….you must come to Montana, up to Glacier Park near where we live!
That would be really fun for my daughter. Thanks for the tip!
We started doing that and we love it. No clutter aaaaand it brings back a memory of a fun time every Christmas season! : )
I am so glad I found this tip! We leave for vacation next week, and now I know exactly what I want to bring home for a momento. Thanks so much!
Wow! That’s perfect timing! I hope that you have a wonderful vacation.