Tackiness, sentiment, tradition: readers share what attracts them to holiday fridge magnets

Some collectors want the tackiest items imaginable, but for others they are heartfelt reminders of the past

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.