I like to joke that I have a bit of a gypsy spirit in me. When I stay in one place too long, I start itching to travel. Fortunately, I'm married to someone who loves to see the world just as much as I do and helps indulge me. As evidence of our travels, we started collecting refrigerator magnets from each destination. However, as we started displaying our collection, the magnets started just looking like a jumbled mess of cheap plastic on the fridge. We decided to switch our collection to a new focus: Christmas ornaments.
Lots of places we travel seem to have a small Christmas knickknack section with ornaments. We like the ornament to have the location written someplace if the item itself isn't a good unique descriptor.
Since our tree is a pretty eclectic collection already, our sometimes silly additions (like this santa riding a croc from the Everglades) still fit right in.
When we can't find something that's specifically an ornament, we find a small trinket that can easily have a piece of string or a loop added to turn it into an ornament once we get home like on this leaning tower of Pisa.
Of course, the best is finding something that is Christmas themed but still made from something that you would never expect to find on a tree. This angel from the Bahamas is made entirely of seashells and is one of my favorites!
Admittedly, there are always times we forget. Last year, while visiting my sisters in London, we were so wrapped up in other things that we forgot an ornament. Luckily, Anthropologie had this cute double decker that still reminds us of our fun time in the UK.
The best part of this tradition is that every year, as we decorate our tree, we are reminded of all of the fun times and places we've shared together. As the collection grows, we can always find more room on the tree without worrying about clutter the rest of the year.
Do you collect anything when you travel?
Love the idea of an easy-to-pack souvenir. Definitely doing this my next trip.
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