<p>My D is graduating HS this year and she's been invited too many graduation parties. Some our whole family has been invited. Some of the graduates I've known for years and am close with the family. For those, I thought I'd give $50 and possibly a small gift as well (luggage tags for daughter's BF who will fly to get back and forth to college, local baseball team shirt to another, cute Vera Bradley wallet to another, picture frame with a prom pic, etc.) Some of the parties we've been invited to my D is good friends with and we know the graduate and the family slightly. What is an appropriate gift - $25? And for those parties that just my D is invited to I assume she does not have to bring a gift - correct? Would love to hear what others do. Thanks!</p>
<p>I agree that the 'kid-only' parties are in general no-gift. I'm giving a few of my son's good friends clothing or other items from the colleges they are attending (bought on line from the college's bookstore). For the 'middle' category, I got a good idea from CC last year - a check made out for $20.07. Or this year, it would be $20.08. I thought that was a good idea.</p>
<p>I think the kids that are really good friends exchange gifts on their own (I'm planning on doing a big basket for one of my best friends with all the stuff we both love...mainly 100 grand bars and ChapStick ((Looooong story))), so no need to bring a gift to the just-kid parties.</p>
<p>Always go with cash or gift cards, especially if the kid in question will be going away to college in the fall. :)</p>
<p>Kinda old fashioned here: I like to have <em>something</em> to wrap. So I often get something small but useful, such as an extension cord, and attach the check to it.</p>
<p>For D's closest friends I usually get a $25 gift card from their college's bookstore, most take orders online, or a gift card from Bed Bath and Beyond to buy dorm stuff with</p>
<p>My son has taken ipod gift cards as gifts to every party he has gone to. They come in $15 increments, so some people get $30, some get $45, depending on how good a friend they are. As I mentioned on the other grad gift thread, Costco is selling htem in packs of 4 for about $56 or $57. Personally, I wouldn't want him to go to a celebratory (graduation) party without a gift of some kind.</p>
<p>Maybe it is regional, but S has gone to many, many grad parties since his freshman year and when it is just the kid going, they don't bring gifts. Usually the only people that bring gifts are the adults-relatives, friends, etc. If they are my son's good friends, we are usually invited also.</p>
<p>I usually just do cash, but for some I have given gas cards.</p>
<p>Thanks for the great ideas. Dontpanic 1 - I like the check idea - I am going to give a check in the amount of $20.08 and give gifts they can use at college - two grads are going to Penn State so I'll get them gift certificates to the Penn State Creamery (Joe Paterno Peach ice cream is to die for!). Thanks again!</p>
<p>We've given small toolkits to both boys and girls. They come in handy in the dorm room, and REALLY handy if they move off campus eventually. My D wanted "girly" toolkits for her friends, so we went on-line and found adorable pink tookits with full size tools. All the friends have loved the idea.</p>
<p>Just in case any choir kids or parents of choir kids are reading: For my birthday, I got a 2 vol. CD set called "Hymn to a Potato." It's Prairie Home Companion choir stuff-very funny-like about the choir that ran away and did stadium gigs (singing things like "Bohemian Rhapsody.") My 17 year old choir geek son thinks it's hysterical. So, since most of the parties he will be invited to will be for choir kids, I ordered a stack of those for him to give.</p>
<p>missypie, for your son:</p>
<p>How do you know when there's a soprano at the door?
She can't find the key and she doesn't know when to come in.</p>
<p>~mafool (who is a soprano)</p>
<p>Why are soprano jokes all one-liners?
So tenors can understand them.</p>
<p>LMAO mafool, those are TOO FUNNY. :) (From an alto.)</p>
<p>This one day in choir, one of the tenors was sitting with us (altos). The director looks over and asks him what he's doing.</p>
<p>The accompanist replies, "He's transsectional."</p>
<p>XD</p>
<p>Cute music jokes.</p>
<p>When my son graduated, only the closer friends exchanged gifts. The kids who had graduation parties did not want their invited friends to bring gifts.</p>