Any Ideas for H.S. Graduation Gifts for Numerous Friends of My Daughter

I like to give those spa wrap towels that velcro. You can have them monogrammed. They're great for college.

This may not be very sincere, but it's extremely useful...a toolkit! Every college kid needs one and you can often find them fairly inexpensively.

Personalized cupcakes!!! You could put each girl's name on them and decorate with their fav color or put little charms on top. I make cakes and goodies in my spare time. Call me if you'd like me to make & decorate them. :)
K. P.
###-###-#### - please leave a message. Sometimes my 20 month old son doesn't let me pick up on time. :P

This may sound bizarre, but the book "Oh, The Places You'll Go" from Dr. Seuss is fantastic for people just starting their journey in life. You could personalize each if you would like by writing a message in the inside cover. I got a copy when I graduated from college and I thought it was a wonderful gift.

Here is a brief review of the book that I found on Amazon:
Inspirational yet honest, and always rhythmically rollicking, Oh, the Places You'll Go! is a perfect sendoff for children, 1 to 100, entering any new phase of their lives. Kindergartners, graduate students, newlyweds, newly employeds--all will glean shiny pearls of wisdom about the big, bountiful future. The incomparable Dr. Seuss rejoices in the potential everyone has to fulfill their wildest dreams: "You'll be on your way up! / You'll be seeing great sights! / You'll join the high fliers / who soar to high heights." At the same time, he won't delude the starry-eyed upstart about the pitfalls of life: "You can get all hung up / in a prickle-ly perch. / And your gang will fly on. / You'll be left in a Lurch."
But fear not! Dr. Seuss, with his inimitable illustrations and exhilarating rhymes, is convinced ("98 and 3/4 percent guaranteed") that success is imminent. As long as you remember "to be dexterous and deft. And NEVER mix up your right foot with your left," things should work out. (All ages)

Honestly it may sound bad but most high school kids dont want sicere and thoughtful.They are going to be out on there own for the first time they want money or gift cards.If you get them like target gift cards or something they will be able to go buy things for their aprtments or dorm rooms.Things that they really want.I am not trying to say being sicere is wrong but that just isnt what most high scool kids want.Ask your daughter she is the one who will want to have an input.

For my brother's friends we did 1G jump drives and those wireless roll up keyboards also Maria Shriver has a great little book out about a graduation speach she gave I think it's called who will you be.

A friend of my son's gave each one 6 plastic hangers, with a small bow on each hanger, in their school colors. Inexpensive, useful, thoughtful.
A. Evans

How about sending them out to eat at your daughter's choice of place. Buy their meals...or gift cards for 25.oo to someplace...

A couple of ideas:
1. if you know where they are going to college, give them a bumper sticker or other college paraphernelia.
2. Checkout snapfish or the other photo sites online - they are all having graduation gift sales. Maybe a photo ornament or something....

-L.

Well, it's not sentimental, but it's very practical - you could give Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover or Financial Peace books - they are even on sale on his website right now for $10 each. If you don't know what he's about, his common sense approach to money has literally changed our lives. Getting those kids started doing their finances right at this stage of life would be the best thing you could give them!

My brother and I were only one year apart in high school, so my mom got hit hard with this two years in a row...she knew that half of us were joining the military and the other half were going to college, so she made laundry bags for the ones going to school and found inexpensive journals for the ones going to the military. I think she alkso tucked a note of best wishes and a $5 bill in also. Hope this helps, when your kids have lots of friends and you are low on funds, we all loved anything we got...not sure how kids these days would feel about those things

The only thing graduates need is $$$$$, especially if they are going to college. My son just completed his first year of college. The money he received from graduating HS paid for a couple of his OVER PRICED EXPENSIVE books.

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Check out Accessories and Gifts!

If you need any embroidery help, my recomendation is Kim Bransford with Nana Puddins Embroidery. She has the CUTEST things. Her number is ###-###-####. www.nanapuddins.com.

Tell her J. sent you! Have a great day!

I recently made a small scrapbook on-line at www.walgreens.com to commemorate a family celebration. They start at $9.99. It is pretty easy to do if you have the ability to upload digital photos. Other photo sites offer the same thing. I really prefer www.creativememories.com for scrapbooks, but this was very economical. The cover is soft-- I think if you stop in at your neighborhood Walgreens they may have a sample to show you of the cover-- the pages inside mine were just photo sheets-- the pages turned out much nicer than what I saw at Walgreens-- was not a true representation-- but you could see the cover.
Good luck!
A.

To make a photo DVD you can download "PhotoStory" for free from Microsoft. It is easy to use and direction are on the website.

C.,

Is it really necessary for your daughter and her friends to exchange graduation gifts, since they are all graduating together? I thought that parents give their children graduation gifts, but never heard of friends exchanging graduation gifts. If your daughter absolutely must give her friends graduation gifts, maybe an engraved picture frame that says the name of their high school and then '09? Although that might be pricey - not sure. I think your daughter and her friends should skip graduation gifts and just all go out to dinner (split the bill evenly) and celebrate their graduation together.

Picture frames come to mind first of all since it's a special time... My mom gave my friends a picture frame with a picture of the three of us that I got taken when I got my senior pictures done. My friends still have that picture frame up in their houses and it's been way over 15 years...

C.....

When my daughter graduated a few years ago, she and I made "scrapbook DVDs" for her friends. We gathered pictures on the computer, then she chose music to reflect each friends personality. Since they were in so many of the pics, most could be used on multiple DVDs. It was a great keepsake for them all.

Hope this helps.

Lynnette

My mom always bought nice towels and had each person's name embroidered on the towel. Sometimes she would do it with their school colors or just that person's favorite colors, etc. All of my friends really appreciated these towels and some still have them today!

Perhaps I've been out of the loop too long, but there was a rule of etiquette once that said gift exchange between graduates wasn't appropriate. A grad's parents have enough expense, so the announcements were always sent to those who didn't have a graduating child. When did this change??

My son received a large bath towel with his initials embroidered. If they are going to college, this will come in handy and their towel can never be confused. He has since indicated he was very thankful for it.

Try this:
http://scrapbooking.about.com/library/weekly/blpaperbagsc...
A girl I know makes these and they are adorable.
You could always do itunes gift cards!

I found the cutest recipe book about ramon noodles. I bought several of those and a case of ramon noodles. I put a walmart gift card on some too. It was a cute unsual gift that no one else thought of.

If you know they are going on to college, you may give them gift cards or buy products for their dorm rooms.

Example: If you know a Pampered Chef consultant, order a microwave cooker, a small batter bowl, a skinny scraper.

If you know of a Creative Memories consultant, order some 7 x 7 albums, page protectors, a package of paper and markers and let them put their own graduation pictures in them.

If you call me, you can choose some Celebrating Home decor products, like reed diffusers (to make their room smell good.), set of dishes for their room, or pictures.

In all these cases, if you order enough of the products to split between them all, you may get some of them free or half priced.

Hope these suggestions help.

small photobooks. Lots of options.
#1 Just give the book
#2 Put one photo of your daughter and her friend in.
#3 Design the Cover to specifically say something like "My College Days" if they are going to college.
Etc...

A single framed photo won't break the bank either. Tuesday Morning has lots of frames.

Or......go to container store and browse for dorm room things.

One other word......I just don't give a lot of gifts. One or two close friends is all. A smile, congratulations or a card are okay.

I have gone to the dollar store and gotten sewing kits and put them in clear plastic containers and decorated the tops with mortar boards. ?These have always been a big hit and everyone can use them. I also purchases atlases and wrote a poem about no matter where life lead them they could always find their way home. Good Luck.

If you can sew make a blanket for each person in their school colors college or high school. If you can not sew you can take two pieces of fleece and make fleece tied throws.

What about a gift box and you can say this is just a little something to start you off. Include pens, paper, and all kinds of supplies etc. Let me tell ya it is not the most sincere thing but they will be grateful for it when they get to college.. for those that are going.. Or you could ask your daughter to create a photo book online at walmart.com if she took pics through out the year. I purchased the one that's like $7 bucks and it so compact and really put together nicely. Takes about 4 to 5 days to get back and easy to create online..

I like the Willow Tree figurines a lot because of the sentiments they can portray. For $13.95, I just bought one that reaches for the sky, as if reaching out to grab all that life has to offer. On the card, I said the figurine reminds me of the song "Unwritten," which is a great song for graduates. (If you haven't heard it, you should listen! It's a great song for EVERYONE!) Anyway, my note tied my wishes for the graduate to the figurine and the song, and I'm hopeful that the gift will be of sentimental value to the recipient. If you know the girls who are graduating personally, you might look for something along those lines, something that represents their interests/goals. And then write a note, download a song ... whatever you can do to make it personal. Good luck!

How about a charm necklace. You can buy the chain and the holder and maybe a charm or two and then charms can be added thru the years. It's something that she can keep forever and remember you and graduation and other special events.

I just sent out my e-mail with ideas for graduates! I do embroidery, so if you'd like to see the email I sent with pictures, just send me an e-mail at ____@____.com and I'll send it to you. Here are some ideas: shower wrap, koozie, water bottle, key chain, towel, tote bag, laundry bag, cosmetic bag, luggage or duffel bag (for trips back home), etc.

Obviously I would suggest embroidering the items mentioned with something to personalize it, but you don't have to. You can also expand on each gift. For instance, you can give the laundry bag, a small thing of laundry detergent, a roll of quarters, and fabric softener sheets. Let me know if you need any other ideas, I'd be glad to help!

when i graduated one of my friend's parents gave me the Dr. Suess book "Oh the places you'll go" I loved it and still have it.

A gift I have given to kids who are going away to school is a personalized laundry tote/basket (name embroidered on fabric) filled with laundry essentials (small detergent, fabric softener, stain stick, bag for delicates, etc.) along with quarter rolls. Practical and cute, and maybe they won't bring quite so much dirty laundry home!

I'm 32 and STILL have (and love) the monogrammed towel set I received as a high school graduation gift. A single oversized bath sheet or even a big beach towel would be great -- and the beach towel might end up costing less than the bath sheet. The one I received was navy, and I loved that it never showed any marks. :)

One of my girlfriends' moms gave us all fabric jewelry bags for traveling. They were drawstring and opened up to be circles that were about 12" in diameter and had lots of pockets inside, surrounding the center circle base. This is something you could sew or find at a craft fair. I used mine ALL the time until it was stolen my senior year... along with all the jewelry I had in it...

Another neat gift was a dictionary. Yes, it was before the real internet age, but there are times people still use these.

My favorite high school graduation gift (aside from a college education from my parents) was an engraved Cross ballpoint pen. It had my first and last name on it, and I treasure it to this day (even though my name has changed).

I'd stay away from frames, personally.

how much are you willing to spend? If there are just a few close friends, dave Ramsey has all his books and cd's on sell right now for $10 (google his name). Starting out college/life debt free and learning to be wise with their money will help them through out their lives. On the other hand- that might be going over the head of a high school graduate! :) If you have some nice photos of your daughter and her friends, a little high school memory/scrap book would also be cherished and shouldn't be too much since they can all be copied and done the same. You can fill it with advice and/or recipes also.
Good luck!
~C.

If you decide to have something custom-made and/or embroidered, as many mamas have suggested, I highly recommend Irene of Sew Nice. Irene offers embroidery on home décor, accessories, and apparel, including custom-made items. You can reach her at ____@____.com for graduation gift ideas.

If they are real ggod friends do you have pictures of all of them together from over the years. I made small scrap books for each of my daughters friends just like pocket size and put typed pages in it with their names,cell phone and email so when they all went off in the world they could keep in touch.

Hi C.,
One of my daughters graduated from high school 2 years ago. Her favorite gifts were money, gift cards and the many nice towels she received from different friends with her name on them.

Money/checks and gift cards are the easiest and you don't have to wrap it. All you need is a card.

R.