<p>my parents threw me a picnic for graduating college.. and they invited my whole family (about 100+, and like five of my friends from school) it resulted in hundreds of dollars in my pocket... but all they did was call the grandparents and tell them about it. and the way my grandparents mingle and gossip with the rest of the family, they loved the task of telling people about it. no need to send out a zillion notes to everyone which are a waste of time and money.</p>
<p>I got $100 from an uncle i barely ever see. I'll have to keep that in mind for when his kids graduate college. (Eeek with him having four :)</p>
<p>We live in the south. I had no idea grad. invites were a regional thing. We've just always done it,lol. We purchased S's invitations from the school last year at the same time we ordered the cap and gown (thats another rip-off story). In retrospect, I wish I had done my own because we could only order from the school in blocks of 25 or 50 and I didn't need nearly that many. S got gifts from most of the people that we sent invitations too. I'd say most of the checks he got were in the $25 range.</p>
<p>Intersting thread...about regional customs. Another example is wedding gift customs..here in the Northeast (or at least metro NY) we send or give checks..last spring I attended a nephews wedding in Minnesota...there were tons of gifts brought to the ceremony/reception,some of them quite large,and the bride and groom didnt leave on their Hawaiian honeymoon for an extra day so they could stay home and open the gifts along with their families at a sort of after-reception.This was a first for me..and Ive been to lots of weddings.</p>
<p>I personally don't think its regional per se...</p>
<p>I grew up very close to fendergirl and most kids at my high school had ordered graduation announcements. Actually, I think I was the only person I knew that didn't send out announcements. My family didn't because I have a VERY small family (even my grandparents had passed by then).</p>
<p>i don't know... i've never gotten a graduation announcement here... not from anyone in high school or in college. my best friend did them in college.. only because his mother made him.</p>
<p>The tradition around here is that students send out the school provided (at a cost!) graduation announcements. Included in the announcement is a copy of their senior photo and often an invitation to a post-graduation 'open house'. These gatherings are usually held at the student's home, but can be at their church, etc. Our graduation takes place on a Sunday afternoon, so these parties are held in the late afternoon/early evening. They include food, the obligatory graduation cake, etc. Often momentos of high school are on 'display' - letter jacket, scrapbooks containing all things pertaining to high school, photos, etc. Since you might receive several of these open house invitations, you spend 2-3 hours "making the rounds" to congratulate all the graduates. People do bring gifts to these parties. We have always given money - as someone else mentioned earlier, we give $25 - $50, depending on how well we know the kid. When our oldest graduated a couple of years ago, I was surprised at the large number of actual 'gifts' she recieved - picture frames, customed 'college' laundry basket and supplies, jewelry, items from the unversity she was to attend, etc.<br>
In getting back to the original question of the post, my daughter included something on her invitation to the open house that I thought was nice - it said at the bottom:
"No gifts please - your gift to me was being my teacher, my coach, or the neighbor who always bought something when I came to the door. Thank you for all your years of support".
She really wanted special teachers, coaches, etc. to attend, but did not want them to feel obligated to provide a gift. This message was left off the invitation sent to family and friends. Many of the teachers, etc. did attend and many remarked on the message. It served as a compliment of sorts along with freeing them from the burden of providing a gift.<br>
Another family sent us an invitation that had a short poem about the graduation experience in it - it said something about her being nervous about giving the graduation speech (she was class president), how her parents would cry and her brothers would yawn - it was cute.</p>