Top 5 Souvenir Gifts

I'm a very practical person - and frugal too, so whether I'm buying souvenirs to give to someone as gifts from my home state, or whether I'm buying for myself, or for someone else while I'm on vacation, I choose to buy useful souvenirs. Hopefully not ones that will just sit on a shelf, or in a drawer, or in a closet somewhere. I'll talk about 5 of my favorites:

My first favorite is a t-shirt, or a sweatshirt with something about the city, state or attraction on it - its name, the event, a picture of a specific area, buildings, popular sight-seeing attraction, etc. I say t-shirt, or sweatshirt because it depends on how much money you want to spend. For the t-shirts you can also choose between long sleeves, or short sleeves and of course a wide variety of colors. Some t-shirts even come in several styles. Sweatshirts come in 2 styles - zipper front, or over the head; both are very useful. T-shirts and sweatshirts come in infants and children's sizes, too.

My second favorite souvenir to give, or to receive, or to buy for myself is for the kitchen - a pot holder and/or oven mitt and/or a kitchen towel. I always seem to see them in souvenir stores, big box stores and Walgreens stores, with a design and the colors from the city and/or state I'm in - even the attraction I'm at, on them. We know people can always use these, as they cook and do other kitchen chores.

My third and personal favorite and which is very reasonably priced is magnets. I love magnets and no matter what city, or state I am in, or attraction I am at, I can find an amazing variety. In some places such as Las Vegas, Nevada, I've even seen magnet stores, which only sell magnets. When someone asks me what I want while they are on vacation, I always say a magnet. Pictures of the state, city, attraction, etc. on the front of magnets are awesome. Men usually like magnets of state, or college sports teams. When I buy them for myself while I'm on vacation, I know it's a great memory of the place I've been to. I do put them up in my home and they don't take up much space at all. When I give a magnet as a souvenir of where I've been, or where I live, it's a small gift of thoughtfulness. If I can tell afterward that a person doesn't like it, or have any use for it, I don't feel I wasted a lot of money.

My fourth favorite souvenir to give, to receive and/or to buy for myself, which may sound crazy, but it shows my practicality and frugalness is a writing implement, such as a pen and/or pencil from the city, state, attraction, etc. We definitely know people use these. Pencils come in the regular lead style, which needs to be sharpened and the mechanical pencil style. I've seen a variety of pens too. Pencils are great souvenirs for children, too. I've also seen boxes of crayons and magic markers for children as souvenirs.

My fifth favorite souvenir to give, to receive and/or to buy for myself is a book about the city, state, attraction, etc. There are so many varieties of books to buy as souvenirs. Books which contain information of the city, state, sports team(s), famous people from the area, well-known sight-seeing attractions, etc. I always find that these books have such beautiful, colorful pictures so they make great coffee table books and they are also fantastic subjects for conversation, while socializing. Coloring books, sticker books and children's reading books are great souvenirs for children.

It's interesting that this subject was a choice to write about as the holidays are approaching because two of the gifts I have to wrap for others are four of the souvenirs I mentioned above.

Enjoy shopping and sight-seeing, as you keep tabs on how much you spend, too.