Graduation Party Ideas

Celebrate your new high school or college graduate with a stylish, special fete

Most high school graduation parties are held at home. But if you're planning a college celebration and you're dealing with long distance party planning, there are a number of venue possibilities, including your child's apartment, a private room at a restaurant (reserve early!) or on the college grounds. The lawns at California's St. Mary's College, for example, turn into a frothy sea of white tents and canopies on graduation day as families host elaborate picnics immediately after the ceremony. If your child's school offers this option, reserve lawn space early and consider having a caterer handle the food, so you don't have to sweat food safety and refrigeration details, or worry about your coolers of food disappearing.

A graduation fete should feature delicious, stylish buffet fare that's easy to make ahead. Anchor one end of the buffet with a big tub of well-iced sodas - plus beer, wine or champagne for the 21-and-over crowd, if you wish. At the other end? A beautiful spread of easy to serve and easy to eat buffet fare - fabulous salads, satays, gourmet mini-burgers and bite-sized desserts. Baby pictures or that memory board you made for your child will make the perfect centerpiece.

One of the lovely things about high school and college graduation parties is that they're grown-up parties. You don't need to fill a pinata (although a pinata stuffed with thumb drives, little packets of detergent and other dorm supplies might be kind of adorable) or play pin-the-tail on anything. Everyone will be perfectly happy simply chatting, sampling the buffet and making toasts to the new graduate. But a video slide show that traces the new graduate's childhood, from babyhood to the present, is a lovely thing at a graduation party. Click here for suggestions on how to make a video slide show, pick and pace the images, and add a soundtrack that makes people cry.

But if you just can't resist having a few, low key activities at your child's graduation festivities, here are a few fun possibilities.

• Put out a blank journal and ask guests to offer the new graduate advice for college or post-college life. Or use a template, such as Kate and Emily Marshall's Words to Live By, which also makes a great graduation gift.
  
• Set up a dorm crafts table with supplies to decorate picture frames or school supplies, or make photo thumbtacks with images of their friends for their dorm bulletin board.
  
• Sew up simple drawstring laundry bags that teens can decorate with iron-on embellishments or fabric paint.
  

Need a great gift for that new college grad? Here are 6 great college graduation gift ideas, from travel accessories and cooking lessons to a rental art gallery gift certificate that not only adorns apartment walls, but may start a lifelong love of the arts. (Got a high school senior graduating? Here are gift suggestions for them too.)

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