How to Take the Whole Family Antiquing

Even on family travel, parents who love antiques and vintage décor can’t resist stopping at a shop or two as they travel. The usual reaction of kids to these stops is rolling eyes or a long-suffering sigh. But there are ways to get kids engaged in the shops while you browse.

Start a Collection
Is there some animal your child likes especially? Most shops have a myriad of small animal figurines, so encourage your child to look for their favorite critter and choose one to keep. Make a limit of one per stop and set price and size limits, too (you don’t want the car filled with stuffed pandas, for example).

The collection could relate to some other hobby: One of our daughters collected toy kitchen utensils, another looked for miniatures she could use to furnish her dollhouse. Older kids can look for vintage décor for their rooms, such as old vinyl album covers. For ideas, look around shops for things inexpensive and available. Who knows, your child’s choice of treasures may be the next big collecting craze.

Make It a Treasure Hunt
Decide on a topic and have everyone count how many they can spot in a shop. This is a good “look but don’t touch” game that’s for younger kids and works best with two or more children. For variety, pick a new topic for each shop and make it something fairly universal, like items that picture dogs or cats.

Treat Shops like Museums
Encourage kids to ask what vintage items were used for, or use Google Lens to identify mystery objects.

Once older kids get the bug for collecting, they might like to keep eBay open on their phones in hopes of spotting a valuable treasure. Nothing pleases kids more than scoring a bargain find.