Five Ideas for Souvenir Gifts

When you’ve just come back from an amazing, life-altering trip, the last thing anyone wants from you is a lame souvenir gift. I am sure that you know which ones I’m talking about – key chains, picture plates, and items like these. Uninspired gifts can simply become dust collectors in the homes of your friends and family. It’s best, then, to come up with unique and creative souvenir gifts that are truly reminiscent of your recent journey. Here are five souvenir gift ideas to get you started:

1. Rock – So perhaps a rock is not the most exciting gift available. However, they are cheap and plentiful nearly anyplace you travel to. To make your rock gift fun and unique, though, choose an interesting specimen. Then go wild with it. Write a special message to a loved one. Draw a picture. Consider collecting a few pretty rocks into a unique vase, bowl, or basket that has been handmade. Attach a note that says, “Each time I thought of you, I picked up a stone. The weight of missing you grew so heavy, I knew it was time to come home and see you.” The recipient will be touched by the thoughtfulness.

2. Seashells – A lot of people pick up seashells while walking along the beach. Yet they never do anything with the shells. Why not consider making some of your special finds into a unique souvenir gift for friends or family? As with a rock, you can write a message on the shell. Or make a quirky homemade mobile using a piece of driftwood as an anchor. Drill small holes, thread some fishing line through, knotting the ends, and attach seashells, postcards with messages, and small trinkets. It will mean so much more than just receiving a postcard in the mail to have something you created with found objects from your trip.

3. Postcard Storybook – It’s easy to send off half a dozen postcards with quickly scrawled messages – “Wish you were here!” “This place is beautiful!” “A trip of a lifetime!” But take a few minutes on your plane or car trip home to create a postcard storybook. While on your travels, pick up all sorts of funny, unique, and interesting postcards. They can be of anything. Then write a short story set in the locale to which you traveled. Make it a mystery, a romance, a children’s story. Try to include yourself, as well as your absent loved one in the story. Write it on the backs of the postcards. Then when you give it to your friend or relative, be sure to say that the trip was great, but next time you hope it’s an adventure like this one. The recipient will surely enjoy reading a more personalized message and story from you.

4. Food – No doubt you enjoyed a lot of fantastic food on your trip. Consider sharing some of the joy that comes from trying new things by bringing a local specialty home. Look for packaged chocolates, teas, or cookies that will call to mind the place to which you traveled. Find a strange food that isn’t available in your hometown to bring back. Even if you are traveling within the country, a regional specialty will definitely be appreciated. On a recent trip I was able to bring pure maple syrup back from Vermont. Everyone loved it. If nothing else, an unusual or unique wrapper in a foreign language will be sure to delight, especially with younger ones. However, be sure to check the regulations concerning taking food home with you. This will depend on where you will be traveling from and to.

5. Collectible – Look for unique collectibles on your trip. This is not to say that you should bring back a coffee mug plastered with your location’s name for everyone on your souvenir shopping list. However, if your friend or relative is a collector of something special, try looking for an addition while on your trip. Perhaps he or she collects records, stamps, or objects with pictures of pigs on them. Whatever it is, it will truly show that you are familiar with their interests when you bring back something specifically for them. Don’t necessarily look for something that has been imprinted with your travel location’s name. Knowing where it came from, and that it was given by you, will be enough for your loved one to remember its story and share it with anyone who asks.