We threw a picnic type party for her with corn hole, glow-in-the-dark bocce, and backyard volleyball.
We bought her a laptop for college.
It’s similar but not exactly the same in da UP.
We have “graduation parties.” They start in the afternoon, and proceed into early evening. Or late evening, if it’s a really great party.
It’s as much for the parents as the graduate; family is invited, as are both the graduate’s and the parent’s friends. Gifts of money are typical - I think I got close to $1500 for my graduation party, and that was in 1987.
No shrine. No cake and punch. No catering.
Beer and other alcohol is typical, along with soft drinks/iced tea/lemonade etc for the kids. The grill is going, and there’s BBQ type food like potato salad and burgers.
What’s odd is that it’s not uncommon for the graduate themselves not to be there. Sure, he/she will be there for a while, but given that there’s many hundreds of kids graduating on the same day, there’s a LOT of graduation parties going on in the the week or so afterwards. The graduating kids are also invited to lots of parties, and they usually spend the the day going from one to another.
In my time, the graduates were usually allowed by their parents to drink, so it was quite a party day. I gather that nowadays that’s not so common.
In 1997, my parents had a big shindig, catered and all, but that was partly because my dad was at the time still working and an executive VP at his company so all those people expected to come. (And gave me cards with hundreds in them!) Also I had some aunts and uncles come into town to go to the ceremony and all.
When I graduated high school, my (single) mother had a few family friends over for cocktails and finger food etc. It seems really weird now, but I had quite a lot to drink. I was 18 and it was legal in NY state in 1979.
Most of the graduating class went to a friends cabin for graduation day party the next day.had a party Swimming, water skiing, etc. There was probably 125-150 kids there and he was a fairly close friend of mine so i spent the night there (it was about 35 miles away). Again there was drinking involved, and since most kids were 18, it was entirely legal.
We didn’t have anything like Project Graduation.
slight hijack question. What do you give graduates who are children of close friends or acquaintances?
A few years ago, I got a graduation announcement from a twin brothers. Two good kids, whom I liked very much but didn’t know them very well. I considered their father a friend (but not a close). the only time we would see each other is when we happened to play golf together.
I gave them $10 apiece and my administrative assistant at the time said that was cheap.
I gave my nephews $50 for their graduation and kids of close friends $25.
I graduated at 15, (I skipped a year and graduated early) and all I got was a cake. 
But really no one in my middle class suburb got anything.
The real thing was “grad night.” This was an all night party at a friend’s house that usually involved drinking. That was less a deal as IL raised the drinking age in 1980 from 19 to 21
But since I was so younger of course, I wasn’t privy to any parties. But that was the big thing in my area.
I still can’t believe what kids get now for graduating high schools, especially since it’s not a big deal anymore.
This is like the question of what you’re expected to spend for a child’s wedding. You’re not expected to bankrupt yourself for their wedding, and you’re not expected to bankrupt yourself for their graduation either. If your child comes crying to you that they are forever shamed because you failed to provide them with the same level of party and gift as their rich friends, tell them that this is their chance to learn about what the real world is like. Not everybody is equally rich, and not everybody can have the same luxuries.
It’s standard to send out graduation announcements to your close relatives and friends. If they happen to send your child a present (of money or whatever), that’s fine, but that’s strictly their choice. Make sure your child sends thank-you cards for any such presents. If you can afford a party, go ahead and have one. Don’t feel the need to have a bigger party than you can afford. Give them a gift that you can afford. A nice set of luggage so that they can travel back and forth between your home and college would be appropriate, for instance.
Corn Hole?
We don’t entertain very much, and it’s tricky in the summer because we don’t have air conditioning (except in a room upstairs). But we did bestir ourselves to host a party for our daughter’s high school graduation. It turned out to be a nice day, we invited about 20 friends and relatives, had a beautiful cake and ice cream. And a spread of cheese, crackers, pepperoni, little pizza squares, and all kinds of fruit. Punch, soda, wine and beer available. Lots of pictures taken, and she got mostly small amounts of money (including a hundred dollar bill folded into an origami bird)…College graduation, we drove home from the ceremony (getting caught in a rainstorm of biblical proportions, we were soaked clear through to our underwear) and we parents, our daughter, and her boyfriend met at a restaurant. That was about it for college, we gave her a pair of pearl earrings that came in an enamel and gold seashell box, and a model of a human skeleton under a plastic dome (that she put together, being an anthropology major) as a souvenier!
I graduated in 1980 from a private school in Rochester NY. Several of us were from south of Rochester and there was a huge party thrown in Geneseo just down the hill from campus on private property. There was a band, lots of loud music, drinking, eating and illicit smokable goodies. The music was loud enough that complaints were called in from up by where Wegmans is now :eek:
It was actually lots of fun. The official school functions were a noon graduation, with a graduation reception in the school caffeteria, which also sort of doubles as class reunion for everybody who has ever gone there. Evening was a dinner and dance [that year we had Spyro Gyra] for the graduating year only followed by a semi official sleep over pool party at a classmates house who had an indoor pool and an outdoor pool. Very fun.
I didn’t get anything from my parents for graduation, I was actually estranged from them and supporting myself. I remember getting a lovely necklace and watch from my grandmother though.
I got a car… but my dad had given it to me as a combination graduation and Christmas present, which he’d given to me the Christmas before graduation (it was a used car, a very COOL car, and is now a classic which I’m ever so slowly in the process of restoring). My parents secretly got poster paint and used my school colors to paint it up with all sorts of “Congrats Grad!” and all that sort of thing, my friends filled it to the brim with green and gold balloons. They sneakily took me around to my Aunt and Uncle’s place, where my school spirit painted car was hiding, on some pretense or another and all of the relatives were there taking snapshots and all.
At the time my grandparents owned a cabin in Talkeetna, about 100 some odd miles north of Anchorage, and like all big family celebrations, we had my HS graduation party there. I guess I was a weird kid, I had lots of school parties to go to, but when my parents asked I said “nope I’d rather go to the family cabin with everyone”.
I got some cards with a little cash from relatives, but what really mattered was that they made a “Do” out of it and the love and attention. It would have been just as cool without “Truli” (the classic car).
I think that if you make even a little fuss over your grad, they’ll love it!
That’s some kind of bean-bag-toss game that Yankees play.
Or so I’m told.
I got a car and a watch for high school. Then we went to the Chinese buffet.
When I finished my undergrad, I got a PS3, and we went to a nice mid-low priced steakhouse.
I’m getting my master’s degree on Friday. We’re cooking at home, and then I’m getting cash for booze and the craps table at the casino.
Barring any surprises, the celebrations and rewards are dwindling. When I (hopefully) finish law school three years from now, I’m guessing my mom will tell me to go ahead and super-size my fries this time. 
Oh, hell no. It’s sure as hell not those of us you call yankees playing a game called cornhole. Pretty sure it’s a midwestern term because here it means something that you hope doesn’t happen to you when you get sent to the state pen.
That had me like 
too, but it must be regional thing.
For my graduation, I got a Louis Vuitton purse from my mom. I got some money from family. Something like 400 dollars. I spent it books. I didn’t want a party. I didn’t want one when I graduated college either. I’ve never been one for big parties. As others have mentioned, it seems more for parents/the family than the graduate.
My observations of graduations before and during mine were that in general, those with means would generally get bigger parties and larger gifts. Those with lesser means would generally get dinner and a good-on-ya.
Personally, I think one of the worst investments in the world is a car for a high school graduate.
Sorry about that.
It’s an outdoor family game and/or a drinking game, that may have been invented here in Ohio, though I’ve seen it played as far away as Florida. Kind of a cross between horse shoes and shuffle board. The object is to toss bean bags onto a slightly inclined wooden boxes, with a hole carved in the upper end, 30 feet away. Two people per side, one member per team. 4 bean bags filled with corn (hence the name, I suppose) for each person. If the bag goes in the hole, it’s 3 points. On the board is 1 point. You can knock other bags off the platform or into the hole. First to 21 wins.
When I graduated in 1987 we had a cake-and-punch sort of reception for the family. I got a camera as a present from my parents, and smaller gifts, mostly checks for $25 or so, from other relatives.
Haven’t yet decided what to do when the older young flodnak graduates in two years’ time. Mostly because I’m in denial that he’s going to graduate in two years’ time.
I’ve been to dozens of these exact shindigs; you nailed it. Yeah, I’m in Michigan.
mmm
Now that I come to think of it, my aunt collected some kind of trading stamps, the name of which I can’t remember right now. I wouldn’t be surprised at all if she used stamps to buy it. Now I"m going to be racking my brain all day to remember what kind of stamps those were. She used to make me paste them in the book, too. I can see the damn things, I just can’t . . .
My own graduation back in days of old? I asked my mom, “are we having a party?” and she said, “no.” (same thing when I said, am I going to college? No.)
Oh. OK. So a couple of friends and I (we were 17) just walked around town to crash other kids’ parties, went home at about 2 a.m., stopping every so often to puke in somebody’s bushes because of all the spiked punch we guzzled all evening! Good Times! 