the comfort things of
There are certain things in the home that are like old friends: they always cheer you up. This month, we feel the love for things found on holiday
The best souvenirs are the ones that mean nothing to other people. No one else knows that the lump of black stone gathering dust on a shelf in the kitchen is actually a piece of volcanic rock picked up in Iceland on a romantic weekend break. Or that you found that unremarkable little basket, now filled with cotton wool balls, on gap-year travels to Malaysia and carried it home in your rucksack.
These are the mementoes that sing to you and to you alone. They trigger the memory, taking you back to happy times. Unlike a digital image, they can be held in the hand and treasured. They are a conduit across time and continents, connecting you to that moment.
Travel and holidays are markers in our lives: memorable weeks that stand proud above the flat routine of the every day. The impulse to bring something back that reminds us of these precious times is hard to resist. It’s feels like extending the holiday by taking a piece of it home. The internet age means that most things are available to everyone all the time, but it’s still possible to find something unique. Buying traditional crafts, even if they are made for tourists, is like adopting a piece of the country’s culture. For the unabashed, it also, provides bragging rights: “Oh, that figure of Ganesh? I picked it up in Bali.”
Some souvenirs, however, are not tasteful at all. We are talking here of the mass-produced tat that fills gift shops and airports and which are often purchased as presents, wanted or otherwise. Whereas they may have kitsch or ironic charm, no one really wants a reminder of someone else’s holiday, and you will soon tire of them. Best to steer clear of anything that declares itself a souvenir, and stick to things that have some sort of personal meaning.
“It’s like extending the holiday, by taking a piece of it home”
* But don’t be tempted by that colourful bottle of liqueur enjoyed last night at dinner. It will never be drunk when you get it back home.