For Caroline Walker, 65, holiday fridge magnets aren’t merely practical souvenirs holding up the shopping list but “meaningful little reminders” that bring her back to a time or place in her life. The first in her collection was a little magnet from Dnipro, Ukraine. It was a gift from the leader of a group of Ukrainian students to whom she taught English. “I look at it now and I wonder where they all are, if they’re OK, how many of them died, how many of the boys are fighting,” she says.
Walker is among dozens of people who contacted the Guardian to share their emotional response to holiday fridge magnets in light of a new study conducted by Liverpool University that suggests these objects may also provide an important means of accessing happy – and not so happy – memories of past trips.
Brought up in Lancashire, Walker, who now lives in the south of Turkey, also reminisces about “the love of [her] life” when she looks at the magnets he gave to her. When she wakes up and puts the kettle on, they’re the first thing she sees. “They’re small and because I can put them on the side of the fridge and I see them every day.”
“I love my two little Greek ships that I’ve got there because again, it’s like, I want to be back on those ferries going around the Greek islands,” she says. “There will be more,” she adds, speaking about a trip she has planned to Thessaloniki in the summer.
Chris Bridge has a slightly more playful take with her collection. She chooses the magnets based on how ugly they are. “I’ll pick the ones that no one really likes. As long as they have the name and where we went, with things we did … the tackier, the better!”
“I quite like the little cable car from San Francisco and also the tile ones from Spain, in Granada. They’re really funny. And also doesn’t make that much clutter,” she says.
It’s a great way to memorialise a trip, but also to give back to locals. “I feel like it’s me contributing to the local economy, purchasing the magnet myself, even if it’s just small.”
Collecting things from trips away is not new to Bridge. She used to collect postcards but graduated to magnets because they’re “sillier” and more convenient. “I used to ask my friends to send me postcards but no one really does that any more,” she says.
Moving from the Middle East to Hook village in England, John Sandford and his family’s magnet collection has been one of the constants in the 20 years since they started it. “Last night, myself, my wife, and my daughter were trying to rack our brains, ‘where did we start this?’ and we can’t remember.
“It’s just something nice to remember those times on holiday, just to remind us of great times we have had. Families grow up but when you get together to reminisce, it jogs your memory. It’s just a fun thing to have.”
Sandford’s daughter Gillian has moved out of the family home with her fiance, Krishan, and the couple have continued this “nice family tradition”.
“They were in Brazil early on in the year and they brought us back a fridge magnet and wherever they travel, they always bring us one back. I’m sure that they will continue,” he says.
