Graduation Party.

A graduation party is a very special event in every student's life. It is the exciting climax to years of effort, and something they will want to share with all their friends, as well as those special adults who have influenced them along the way.

Most often they are informal, come-and-go events. But some famalies may prefer a more formal dinner type event. Whatever you decide, a graduation party works best as a family planned event. By far the most popular theme is the informal come-and-go. This works best for the host family as well as guests, since there will most likely be numerous events in the same time frame. Some close friends will come at the beginning, and stay to the end, and possibly help with the set-up, and the clean-up. Other more casual acquaintances will drop in to say hello, and leave after a short while. Most graduation parties include some finger food type refreshments, soft drinks, a gift table and basket, and a few decorations.

Graduation Party Invitations
You can buy invitations at a card shop, have formal invitations printed, or you can print your own. Here are a couple links to suggestions for printing your own.
Free invitations you can dowload and print
Instructions to design and print your own invitations

Finger Food Refreshments
Chips and dips are easy and inexpensive. There are Salsa recipes of every description that are easy to make.
Make a vegetable platter with bite size pieces of various raw vegetables like baby carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, celery, radishes, etc. Ranch style dressing makes a good vegetable dip. Put it in a bowl, with a small serving spoon. You might dress up the dip with chopped cilantro, parsley, or chives.
I have several more finger-food recipes, but I can't compete with the experts. So here is a list of over 9,000 finger food recipes.

Gift Table Ideas
The gift table should be easily accessible to arriving guests. But it should not be close enough to the entrance to allow gifts to leave the graduation party without permission. If the gift table is relatively close to the entrance, but out of the line of traffic, it will be convenient for incoming guests to drop off gifts, and easier for the host to keep an eye on. Also, guests who do not bring a gift will not feel embarrassed. Generally, the gift table should include a nice looking basket, or container, for cards and monitary gifts. A nice slit-top box would work well. The host or hostess should occasionally check the gift table, and remove cards and monetary gifts, to a safe place. Most of the time, there are no problems with people upsetting the gifts or raiding the envelopes, but with a little forethought, it becomes one less worry.

Decorations
Since this is a very social event, decorations do not need to be a major part of your cost, and effort. There will probably be many people coming, going, and mingling. So decorations should not be an obstacle to traffic flow. Here are some simple decoration ideas:

Since you may have guests that are not familiar with the location of your home, a sign, with school colors, outside your home will be helpful.
Use crepe paper ribbon in school colors. Hange alternating colors in doorways, or from the center of the ceiling to walls.
Make Crept bows to hang in various places, or to lay across a table
Make a display of the graduate's accomplishments
- This will be a great family project, or the graduate may want do it on his/her own. Talk about it with your graduate, a week or more before the party, so there will be plenty of time to plan and assemble the display.
- The display should be in an area where guests can look at it, without being disrupting the flow of other guests. A card table, end-table, or section of cabinet top will work nicely.
- It can be a poster, or any type display he/she wants to put together.
- Talk about the amount of table space they will need for their display, and where it will be located, so they can plan accordingly.
- Items or pictures others may not recognize should be labeled in some way.
- Somewhere on the display, the graduate's name should be displayed.
- A brief autobiographical article might be fun to put together. It could be a report format, or a scrapbook, or picture album.
- If he/she has special, future plans think of ways you can incorporated them into the display as well.
- Almost anything that depicts highlights of the graduate's life would be great. Think about special activities, organizations, clubs, sports activities, religious and social events, etc.

What are your favorite graduation party ideas? Please share your ideas with our readers.