Looking for a unique gift for your college-bound graduate? Send them off with a College Survival Kit with must-need items for all college bound grads! Read through for ideas and cards you can use, mix/match, and add your own twist to as well!
THE PRESENTS
While you can definitely add you’re own, here are few that match the cards we created. Each present comes with a sentence or two on why they were added to the kit 🙂
- Vintage Alarm Clock: “To make sure you’re the early bird that catches the worm.” While almost every grad probably has a phone, which has an alarm clock, this one is more symbolic and decorative. Pick an alarm clock you think they’ll like OR one that’s been in the family & passed down.
- Microwaveable Mac n’ Cheese Cups (or really anything that does not need to be refrigerated & just popped into the microwave): “For those late night studying sessions and NONE of the cafeterias are open…” If you’ve ever lived in a dorm, you know that midnight dining options aren’t as plentiful. Send them off with a few snacks they can stash in their dorm room!
- Notebook: “To jot down all those amazing thoughts!” This can be a regular school notebook OR nice, decorative journal depending on how much writing your grad likes to do 🙂
- Pens & pencils: “Cause you can never have enough of these!” Let’s be honest, how many times do our pens or pencils just happen to disappear never to be seen again?? A bulk set can help ensure your grad has enough writing utensils even if a few do get gobbled by goblins 🙂
- Mobile Battery Charger: “To keep you going and going and going and going and going.” In this day in age, a mobile phone is almost like a second hand for many. Give your grad a mobile phone charger and they won’t have the “My phone died” excuse when you call them – haha 🙂
- Water Bottle: “Because you should ALWAYS stay hydrated.” Make sure you get one that holds the temperature so they can have nice cold ice on hot days!
- Box of Band-aids: “Though a band aid can’t fix everything anymore, know that you can still get through anything!” Remember when they were little and a band-aid fixed everything? Well, that may be gone but a little bit of reminder on how they can still get through anything can go a long way.
- Rubber band Ball: “To remind you to be flexible and that you can always bounce back!”. You can pick up a rubber band ball at a store or make one out of loose rubber bands lying around the house.
- Box of Crayons: “To color your world”. Cause crayons make everything more colorful and fun!
- A Few Coins: “So you always have enough cents to know how valuable you are”. If you can create or find a mason jar with a “College Fund” label, that works too! We picked up a “College Fund” jar at the Dollar Store but you can also make one fairly easily – especially if you skip the slot at the top.
- Hand Sanitizer: “Cause after 2020, you should never leave home without this!” Simple hand sanitizer works just as well but if you can find a favorite scent or a moisturizing one, that works well too!
- A Graduation Book or a Mirror: “So you always remember that YOU ARE REMARKABLE”. We picked up a picture book : Remarkable You (which, yes is FAR below grade-level but still has a nice message. Also, we had already given them “Oh the Places You’ll Go” by Dr. Seuss, so we had to find a different option 🙂 )
THE CARDS
We printed out the cards on our Graduation Label but again feel free to improvise here. The main goal is that each present has some meaning for the grad 🙂
THE PACKAGE
And that was it! We picked up a laundry basket (’cause you know college dorm-bound kids need that too), wrapped each present with a #, and printed out the College Survival Kit Cards. For each card read, the corresponding present # was opened.
For our presents, we picked gold wrapping paper and lined the basket with black and white tissue – traditional graduation colors. For another personal twist, you could also use school colors instead.
If you’ve got any nostalgic items that would bring a smile to your grad, add those in too!
THANK YOU!!!
Thank you so much for checking out our article on a Simple Graduation Gift. We hope that this was helpful and maybe even inspired more ideas for you! If you tried out any of our ideas, we’d love to hear from you! Add in a comment below and/or follow us on Pinterest!
Also, if you haven’t already and are looking for other graduation ideas, please feel free to check out our other articles: Graduation Ideas.
Happy Party Planning and CONGRATULATIONS to your Graduate!!! :):):)
