Graduation Announcements and Gifts

My daughter is graduating in June. She is saving money for her dorm room. She has everything picked out on Etsy and Pinterest.

My mom is giving her monogrammed towels in the color she is using in the dorm.

We are giving her money, some luggage, and the school athletic photographer custom made an athletic poster for her accenting her cheer this year as Captain and I had it custom framed. VERY nice!!

This is not a gift but I also have a long, shallow plastic box that can easily slide under something filled with card stock, lettering, stapler, scissors, tape, sticky notes, index cards, etc for an on hand office/school supply for her.

She is invited to a couple of good friend's party and the minimum we will send is $25, most likely $50 if there are not too many of those invitations.

We are sending announcements out this week. Because some schools have earlier graduations, my daughter has already received money from some people.

So far I have sent $50 for a cousin, $200 for nephew.

Most importantly..... send handwritten thank you notes as soon as the gift is received!

The custom varies by community - in our town, no one sent announcements to classmates, and parties were done by Facebook! We did not give gifts to each other's kids - it seemed like just a cash exchange. If we were very close to one other family, fine, and if WE went to the party, we gave a card and maybe a small check. But if our son was the one invited, there was no card or gift exchange.

It's nice that you want to go and congratulate the grads, but remember that most of them will be seeing friends and perhaps flying in and out to other parties, and they may not have time for you. I've also found that most kids in this generation have not been taught to write thank you notes, so don't expect much.

In my experience, kids just want money. You could certainly do a check for $10 or $20 - if you're giving $20, you might up it slightly to $20.13 since they are graduating in 2013. A few colleges I know got kids to start contributing to the Annual Fund (a tradition the college hopes will continue) by having graduates donate in the amount of their graduation year.

If you know which college the high school grad is attending and if you have time, you could get a small gift card for that college bookstore. They won't use it for books - they'll use it for hats or shirts or key chains or other university paraphernalia, and they'll love it.

Do not do cash under any circumstances - cards get tossed around at parties and they get misplaced. There's also a huge problem at parties (also weddings, confirmations, etc.) of guests or catering employees stealing the envelopes to see what they can accumulate in cash and gift cards.

when my boys graduated we were invited to lots of party's. my standard gift to those he was friends with was $20 - $25 or a small laundry basket from the dollar store which I filled with laundry soap, stain remover, hangers, bounce, bleach etc and a roll of quarters for a washer at a laundry mat as most of them were going away to college. really close friends we gave $50 and my own neices / nephews we gave more.

Why are you not having any type of celebration for your son? You can do it is simple as a cake and punch.

Here's what my son and all his friends did for each other. They gave "funny gifts". My son got Play-Doh, a Nerf Gun, playing cards, Red Hots, stuff like that. One of his friends (girl) bought a type of frame that you write on with a sharpie and put as many "sayings" as she could remember that meant something to them both. That meant a GREAT deal to him, I will tell you.

I would do that if I were your son.

I do $20. I love having their pictures.

I just took the picture of my youngest's last day of high school!

17 years (oldest's and youngest's) of public school is over! Weird.

If you go to the party, you should bring something. If the kid is going off to college, get something he can use in his dorm room. If not, just money or a gift card.

Otherwise, if all the kids are in the same group of friends, then get a really nice picture of them all together and have it framed for each of them. Not too large, since guys are not huge on displaying photos, but something they can look at and be reminded of them. Or, if not in a frame, have the photo put on a mug that they can keep on their desk for pencils (or drink from). Go to shutterfly.com and see the tons of photo gifts that are available. You could come up with something they would all really like.

I am so glad you asked this question because I am in the same dilemma. One of my friends said that if the announcement was addressed to my daughter (who is a junior), then have her send a $10 giftcard, especially if it is from a not so close friend. For a boy, maybe a Whataburger giftcard. A girl, Starbucks? She said if it is a relative, then send $25.00. I am giving my daughter's boyfriend $50.00. To be honest, I am not sure what to do with regard to her friends graduating. I would like to send each one $25.00 instead of $10. I am still debating. Depends on how many of these announcements we get.

Not a thing wrong with money. Most kids will be glad to get it. I think that's perfectly appropriate.