<p>Its that time of year again and Id like some opinion on the question:</p>
<p>What was the nicest or most memorable high school or college graduation gift received? </p>
<p>I know theres the typical gift cards, engraved items, even dorm room items for the college-bound but what else? </p>
<p>Creative or simple -- doesn't matter. Thanks.</p>
<p>My godmother gave me stationary with my name engraved on it...it looked so adult. I used the stationary throughout college for thank-you notes after internship and job interviews.</p>
<p>We gave my niece 9 cards, each labeled with a month she'd be in her first year of college. Each card had personal notes from family, little inspirational quotes, and a gift card associated with the time of year...Target for the first month, college bookstore a couple of times, gas card for December - to get home, food places near her campus. </p>
<p>She has (amazing to us) stuck to the plan and opens a card on the first of each month. OK she TELLS us that is what she's doing. And she seems to be really enjoying it.</p>
<p>No we're not made of money. The card a month thing was a group effort. We also had to consider what vaule each gift card had to be in order to make sense for its intended purpose.</p>
<p>mikasauntie, that's a very clever idea!</p>
<p>mikasauntie - that is one of the best gift ideas ever!</p>
<p>I showed my mom this idea and she loved it. But now she's complaining because she can't do it for me since I know about it already.</p>
<p>Transition to adulthood items -
A decent watch
A real, well weighted pen (if they are right handed - fountain pen, for a lefty, just a good ball point)
cuff links
A tie
A good wallet/money clip</p>
<p>Those are obviously guy biased, but graduation is one of those symbols of adulthood, so that sort of thing is good.</p>
<p>a laptop computer, which will be of great use in college.</p>
<p>Mikasauntie, what a wonderful gift!! When my niece graduated in 2000 my SIL and her DH gave her a crystal bowl engraved with her name and the year and it was filled with 2000 pennies from 2000. I thought that was very thoughtful. </p>
<p>I struggle w/ what to give D's many graduating friends. I will probably do the money thing but not sure how much to give. I suppose that since my D will probably be having the earliest party I can go by that.</p>
<p>A nice laptop for college. Not the basic kind, the kind she can load some of her favorite software programs.</p>
<p>My grandmother gave me a piece of heirloom jewelry. I don't really wear decorative accessories, but I'm very glad to own a piece of family history. Also, heartfelt letters that say more than "I'll miss you, study hard" are very meaningful. Basically, sweet thoughtful gifts are best for close friends/family members. You can't genuinely give that type of gift to every senior you know, and they won't want 20 of that type of gift... gift cards really are amazing from family friends and acquaintances. Don't feel pressured to give special gifts to everyone. If everyone had given that type of graduation present, I wouldn't have been able to buy so much at Target this year. :)</p>
<p>Best gift my son got (besides money, of course)....</p>
<p>Two postcards from his friend's mother. On one side they said in big letters: I NEED COOKIES! On the other side she had her name & address on the right, and a stamp. On the left she had a list of cookie flavors he could choose from (chocolate chip, sugar, oatmeal raisin...) and a spot for him to put his name and campus address. Along with this she gave him 2 packages of delicious home-made cookies to eat now.</p>
<p>He mailed one of the postcards back to her about 3 weeks after school started. A week later he received a box with delicious home-made cookies and a "best wishes" note! I don't know if he ever sent the second postcard, he talked about saving it till the end of the year. Maybe he'll even use it his sophomore year....</p>
<p>MomOf3Stars-Grad year checks ($20.08) are always a big hit with the kids' friends.</p>
<p>my-3-sons: Cute Idea!!! I bet you could do the same w/ gift cards as well.</p>
<p>So many wonderful ideas! Lafalum84, I love the "I need cookies" idea!</p>
<p>For S1, I got a nice photo album and filled it with pictures of him from birth through senior year...sort of a a "this is your life" album. We also gave him some money for a trip to Mexico with a friend's family. </p>
<p>This might be mostly for a girl but...when I graduated from high school, my older sister gave me a handmade (not by her) patchwork quilt. At the time I thought it was a kinda dorky gift but now many years later, It is the only graduation gift I still have and use all the time and will cherish for a long time to come.</p>
<p>My grandmother designed a ring for my mom for her graduation in...geez, the 70s or something. Anyway, it's a really pretty antique-type ring that my mom recently brought back into commission. It's one of my personal favorites out of her jewelry collection.</p>
<p>So you can imagine my surprise when I opened my graduation gift from her (wasn't particularly expecting anything...tangible--a party, a card, paying for college, etc) to find her ring that I loved! "No, Mom, I can't--it's one of your favorites!"</p>
<p>Then she told me she went to a jeweler near us and had an exact replica, in my size, made for me from her ring. I have YET to take it off and love knowing that there's a little piece of mom with me all the time. It's pretty and simple enough to be worn everyday, and she's doing the same thing for my sister who is graduating in May. </p>
<p>On a less sentimental note, I also received a complete manicure kit (nail files, scissors, clippers, all those tools) and a gift card for a manicure that I used during finals week from my aunt. It's been incredibly useful! Tools are kind of boring, but if you find some way to make them clever (for example, I have a floral hammer), then they're pretty fun and quirky. Another kind of cool, trendy thing to do is jewel a hat (with rhinestones or sequins) from the new college for her. You can find directions online and supplies at a local craft shop (as an aside, using a white crayon tip to pick up each individual rhinestone is SO MUCH EASIER than using your fingers, and the white wax rubs right off) and the whole thing will probably cost you $15-$20 + hat. </p>
<p>Mine are all girl-skewed, haha. Enjoy!</p>
<p>A couple of years ago I gave my son t-shirts from the local hangouts. The bagel place, the taco place, etc.,about six in total: all obscure little names that he had grown up with and all had out hometown somewhere on the shirt. He said he met a lot of people when wearing his local shirts while away at school.</p>
<p>Boys are especially hard to shop for! My son's favorite gift was a small box-like travel alarm engraved with his initials and the year. If you go to the bookstore of the college they're going to attend, you can get some fun gift items--a fleece blanket or something else useful. We've also ordered coin sets in the graduation year from the US Mint (we do this for baby gifts sometimes too).</p>