Gifts for Grads

Give them a gift to help with their life journey.

When students graduate from high school and college, all thoughts turn to the future. Where will their next steps take them? What do they need for their upcoming journey through life? And let's not forget the unexpected melancholy some will feel about what has been left behind. These gift ideas will help your favorite graduates as they reflect on the past and set out to build their futures.

High School Graduates

Students graduating from high school often seem to straddle two worlds. With one foot still in the dependency of childhood, they are taking giant strides toward becoming independent adults.

Help Them Phone Home

At least during the beginning weeks of college, the once independence-craving high school grad will feel twinges of homesickness. Give them a phone card so that they won’t need to blow their budget or cell phone minutes during those late night, teary calls to loved ones.

Feed Them

Cafeteria food and boxed macaroni and cheese can become old pretty quickly. Give your grad a gift card to a nearby or online specialty food store to treat themselves to good food when the craving strikes.

Keep Them Rocking

Keeping up with their favorite artists may become an unaffordable luxury on a student’s budget. Give them an iTunes gift card so they won’t fall helplessly behind in their digital music collection.

Go Low Tech

Sure, digital photography has increasingly become the norm, but if you are into scrap booking, a book of memories created for your grad will be a cherished take-along to college. There’s something homey about flipping through a scrapbook while seated on your bed after a tough day of classes and homework.

Send them Packing

Pillowcases work, but it would be much nicer to have a stylish duffel bag to pack up the weekend necessities for road trips back home or to other places.

Fill ‘Er Up

The price of gas shows no sign of dropping in the near future. That’s why a gas card for a student with a car will help them to get about town with a little less pocket pain.

College Graduates

The future has arrived for college graduates, and that often means pursuing a new career. Setting up their first real home, not just a temporary college apartment is on the agenda for many college grads.

Wake Them Up

Who has time to make a pot of coffee while racing to your first job? Help them get their morning wake-up call by giving a thermos mug from a favorite coffee shop, along with a gift card for refills.

Keep the Date

Interviews, dates, travel, it’s so hard to keep track of everything when starting out in life. A daily planner will be an invaluable tool for someone who is learning how to manage life for the first time.

Bag It

Resumes and other papers are a necessity when hitting the pavement, but they have a way of falling to the floor when your grad reaches for a handshake. A stylish briefcase may be just the finishing touch a college grad needs to feel confident walking into an interview or job on the first day.

Give Them Wings

Or at least give them a way to approach their future with the classic book “What Color is Your Parachute” by Richard Nelson Bolles. Whether they are job hunting today or plotting their future course, this book will help organize their approach.

Entertain Them

After paying rent, buying groceries, and covering commuting costs, that first paycheck may have little left for entertainment expenses. Give your grad a subscription to Netflix or other movie rental service so they won’t have to spend every night watching reruns on television.

Add Panache

Setting up your first real apartment after college can be very expensive. The reality of a first paycheck is a far cry from the dream of the perfect home. By giving a gift card to a stylish furnishings store, such as Pottery Barn, you can help them get accessories that lend panache to their new home.

Get Cookin’

A first apartment is the opportunity to try hosting a dinner party. But many young people don’t know where to start, especially after subsisting on microwave dinners. Give them a good beginner cookbook such as “The Joy of Cooking” to help them plan that first feast.