Graduation 2020 Celebration Ideas & Favor Ideas during COVID-19

Middle school, high school, college—all graduations look a bit different this year. And rather than let them pass by without a celebration, why not tweak what a traditional graduation party looks like?

5 Graduation Celebration Ideas for 2020

Whether you’re a parent, teacher, or administrator, here are a few graduation celebration and favor ideas for 2020, including tips and tricks for making this a celebration grads won’t ever forget.

1. Do a Drive-By Caravan

The big trend right now is drive-by graduation celebrations. Basically, you gather a caravan of celebrants to pass by the grads’ houses to honk and cheer them on. Adding custom signs and balloons to cars makes it even more special, along with passing out signs to the grads to place in their front yards.

A few graduation favor ideas for your caravan:

• 1” Crystal Balloons: pick a balloon that matches the schools colors and add the graduation date and mascot.
• Magnetic Car Sign: easy to attach and remove, these custom signs offer enough space for your encouraging message to grads.
• Yard Sign: these stick into the ground and are ideal for giving to students to display in their yards.

2. Create a Photo Collage

Make something grads will hang in their room or take to college with them to commemorate their big achievement. There are a few ways to gather photos from their classmates:

• When you mail graduation announcements, add a stamped envelope they can send back with fun photos
• Email parents
• Set up a Polaroid camera outside your house so classmates can snap their own candids.

Once you have the photos, there are endless options for creating the collage—scan and create a digital book, paste onto poster board, or add to custom photo frame.

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3. Set Up a Yearbook Signing Station

In-person yearbook signing is sometimes the highlight of the end-of-year activities, and there’s no reason to cancel that now! Place the yearbook outside the house on a table paired with a jar of personalized graduation pens that classmates can use and take with them.

For these graduation favors, we recommend Contour Pens because they’re affordable and come with free graduation designs.

4. Partner with a Local Restaurant

Graduation dinners are cancelled, which hurts both restaurants and grads. Reach out to local restaurants to see if they can offer a discount on pick-up or delivery meals so grads can get a good meal at home with family. While they may not be breaking bread with their classmates, there’s something nice about knowing you’re all sharing a similar meal. Bonus points if you do a Zoom dinner with classmates!

5. Give Personalized Graduation Gifts

Whether you drop them off at grads’ houses or mail these graduation favor ideas, they’re sure to be appreciated.

• Carabiner Elite Keychain: a thoughtful present as grads drive off into their future.

• 11 oz. Gia Stainless Steel Wine Glass with Lid: perfect graduation favors for college students.

• 11 oz. Ceramic Mug: pick from a free library of graduation designs.

We’re so proud of you, class of 2020! This is an unprecedented time and you deserve to be celebrated, and we hope these graduation celebration ideas and grad favors do just that.