Grad (Re)Cap 🎓 and Gown: A Gifter’s POV

It’s June, and high school seniors have walked across stages, turned their tassels, and claimed well-earned diplomas. Grad parties give us the chance to celebrate them and their proud parents. 

Grad party gifts always challenge me. I’ve heard the best gift is cold hard cash, but that feels so impersonal and hard to gauge how much to give. Some grads are relatives or close family friends, and some of these names I’ve never heard until my daughter brings home the invitation from school. We’ve written before about the challenge of acknowledging people well when you don’t know them well. 

Picking the Perfect Gift

As a college professor, each year I do subtle market research.  

One class assignment asks students to pick a product they would have wanted and then develop an advertisement designed to persuade graduating high school seniors to ask for it as a graduation gift. Over the semesters, students consistently chose products like one-cup coffee makers, rolling storage carts, fancy fans and even super-charged surge protectors. 

Several students picked a product that caught my eye: the BedShelfie. This clever contraption serves as a shelf nightstand for dorm beds. The shelfie became my go-to grad gift for several years. Until this one. 

While I had always prided myself on this unique gift students could unwrap and use, I found out that it doesn’t work for all dorm beds. I realized there was a high likelihood that some of them just hadn’t told me or had any way to return the gift. Our own research has shown that people don’t tell you when they didn’t like your gift.

Getting it Wrong

That’s the opposite of what I had hoped. I had made the gift about me and what I liked to give, rather than what they really preferred. And so I made my rounds at grad parties this year with a balance that worked for both of us: thoughtful card and money. 

It turns out that was the right call. As part of our recap, we asked our community on social last week what gifts they wanted.

By the end, 75% had said grads wanted money. 

A New Day Is Coming

Fortunately, this is the last year I’ll struggle with this decision. By next year’s party season, I can send a quick HeyDay survey to each grad and find out what they reallywant.

No more guessing.

No more feeling immobilized by how impersonal it is.

Until then, congratulations to the grads (and parents) of the class of 2026.

We wish you many happy heydays ahead!