{"id":707,"date":"2013-04-18T09:24:21","date_gmt":"2013-04-18T16:24:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bensbargains.net\/thecheckout\/?p=707"},"modified":"2013-10-28T14:44:49","modified_gmt":"2013-10-28T21:44:49","slug":"terrible-graduation-gifts-awesome-alternatives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/guides\/terrible-graduation-gifts-awesome-alternatives\/","title":{"rendered":"Terrible Graduation Gifts…and Awesome Alternatives"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"Graduation\"<\/a>Graduation season will be here before we know it (ask any high school or college senior and they’ll surely be able to tell you the exact amount of time until its arrival, down to the hour or minute).<\/p>\n

But every backyard BBQ you attend, every piece of overly frosted cake you eat, every ice cold beer you ingest (if you’re lucky enough to go to grad parties with beer), comes with a price: you must come bearing gifts.<\/p>\n

Here are some standard gifts you might think to give the graduate in your life, along with better ideas that just might make you the valegift<\/em>orian of 2013 (the only cheesy graduation pun in the article, I promise!)<\/p>\n

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Terrible: A Copy of \u201cOh, The Places You\u2019ll Go!\u201d\u00a0<\/b><\/h1>\n

\"gradgifts_card\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Don\u2019t get me wrong, I love Dr Seuss just as much as the next girl, and this is certainly a sweet gesture. But I received three copies of this book when I graduated from high school, then another two or three when I graduated from college. Of course they all came with handwritten notes in the front cover, so it\u00a0wasn’t\u00a0like I could exchange or re-gift them (at least without being incredibly tacky).<\/p>\n

Awesome: The Card Version<\/strong><\/h1>\n

<\/strong>You can find\u00a0the card version here<\/a>.\u00a0You\u2019ll still get the same sentiments across without burdening them with one more thing to try and find space for in their new dorm room or cramped first apartment.<\/p>\n

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Terrible:<\/b>\u00a0Small Kitchen Appliances<\/h1>\n

\"magic-bullet\"<\/a>I remember the excitement of getting ready to head off to college — packing my toaster, blender, coffee maker and electric griddle; carefully boxing up my shiny new quesadilla maker and panini press. After I actually started school and quickly realized two things.<\/p>\n

First, I barely had room for my clothes in my tiny dorm room, much less a rice cooker or Magic Bullet. Secondly, there was this thing called “pizza delivery,” and I would never cook for myself again. Pretty much the same thing happened when I moved into my first apartment after graduating from college: I got tons of new kitchen essentials, with nowhere to put them and no idea why\/how to use them.<\/p>\n

Awesome: Restaurant Gift Cards<\/h1>\n

\"gradgifts_giftcard\"<\/p>\n

A quick Google search should tell you what places deliver to their college, or what restaurants are near their new apartment. For greater bang for your buck, you might even check Groupon<\/a>\u00a0to see if there are deals on dining establishments in their area — they have a nice “give as a gift” feature.<\/p>\n

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Terrible: Inspirational Books<\/h1>\n

\"Chicken-soup\"<\/a>I’m pretty sure at least one well-meaning family friend or relative got me a copy of Chicken Soup for the College Soul<\/em> when I graduated from high school (yep, it’s a real book<\/a>). I’ll let you in on a little secret: I never read it.<\/p>\n

High school grads are too cool to read those kinds of books, and college grads are too busy trying to find a job to read them.<\/p>\n

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Awesome: Amazon\u00a0Purchasing\u00a0Power<\/h1>\n

\"gradgifts_amazon\"<\/p>\n

Give them an Amazon<\/a>\u00a0gift card. I was absolutely shocked at how much college textbooks cost. I spent about $600 at the college book store my first semester! Amazon has them for much<\/em> cheaper, and also has Kindle versions that you can download for your e-reader or tablet.<\/p>\n

If you really want to impart some wisdom with your gift, a simple “retail is for suckers”<\/a> note along with the gift card should do. An Amazon card is also the perfect choice for the college grad — no matter what they need, from breakfast cereal, to a new rug, to toilet paper, they will probably be able to find it on Amazon.<\/p>\n

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Terrible: Jewelry (or other expensive trinkets)<\/h1>\n

\"Graduation-Jewelry\"<\/a>There’s a ton of graduation jewelry out there — Tiffany & Co even sells a cap and tassel necklace<\/a>\u00a0for a cool $250. But think about it: aside from graduation night (and\u00a0maybe\u00a0<\/em>a few weeks after), who is going to want to actually wear something like that?<\/p>\n

Even worse is the stuff that has the actual graduation year printed on it. Years down the road when they’re 38 and trying to pass as 29, they’ll curse the ring or bracelet that lets everyone know they’re really from the class of 2013.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Awesome: Cold, hard cash<\/h1>\n

\"money\"<\/a>Give them cash. High school grads, college grads, any grad — they’re usually pretty broke. If you are contemplating throwing down $100 on a silver paper weight with their graduation date engraved on it, don’t.<\/p>\n

Take that $100, put it in a card, and let them use it towards rent or food or new underwear! Money may seem impersonal, but it’s definitely<\/strong> the best thing you can give to any new graduate.<\/p>\n

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Terrible: Flowers<\/h1>\n

\"dead-flowers\"<\/a>Neither high school nor college graduates know what the heck they’re supposed to do with flowers. Here’s what they\u00a0will\u00a0<\/em>do with them: throw them on the couch or table where they will die a slow, sad death in the plastic wrapping they came in.<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n

Awesome: Indoor Herb Garden<\/h1>\n

\"Screen<\/p>\n

If you want to go the plant route, consider getting them some sort of indoor herb garden. This one<\/a> on Amazon is around $35. Might not be the best idea for the high school grads (however\u00a0this article<\/a>\u00a0makes it sound pretty easy to maintain an indoor garden in your dorm room), but it could be a lot of fun for the right type of college graduate.<\/p>\n

There is definitely a strange thrill that comes with harvesting your very own basil to spice up that frozen pizza you just pulled out of the oven. At the very least, it will help the special grad in your life earn some major green points\/hippie cred (always important among the post-grad crowd).<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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Terrible: A Fancy Pen<\/h1>\n

\"fancy-pen\"<\/a>A fancy what<\/em>? You know, one of those things with ink that you hold in your hand and use to write things on paper.<\/p>\n

Gone are the days when people took notes by hand; there are laptops and tablets and super smartphones for that now. You no longer doodle in your notebook when you’re bored during a lecture or a meeting, you hop onto Facebook and like photos of your friend’s dog wearing a sweet Yoda outfit.<\/p>\n

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Awesome: A Stylish USB Flash Drive<\/h1>\n

\"gradgifts_usb\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Get them a cool stylish flash drive. It sends a similar message, but will be actually be useful for their studies or new job.<\/p>\n

Think Geek<\/a>\u00a0has a bunch of fun options to check out. Also, here’s an entire Pinterest board<\/a>\u00a0dedicated to the best flash drives around the web.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Terrible: An Empty Frame or Photo Album<\/h1>\n

\"photo-frame\"<\/a>I’m not quite sure why, but I received a boatload of these when I graduated from high school.<\/p>\n

We’re talking shiny “congratulations” frames with stock photos of smiling young ladies in gaps and gowns (who were\u00a0clearly<\/em> way too old to be graduating from high school) shoved in them. It’s basically a terrible attempt to be sentimental, but in the most generic way possible.<\/p>\n

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Awesome: A Custom Photo Book<\/h1>\n

\"gradgift_photobook\"<\/p>\n

Don’t get them a frame unless you have a meaningful photo to put in it. Even more impressive, you could also make them a special\u00a0photo book<\/a> to remember their high school or college years.<\/p>\n

There are tons of places online that make it incredibly easy to upload photos and turn them into custom memory books; most even have graduation-specific templates. There are often coupon codes available for these, so don’t forget to keep an eye out for them on\u00a0Ben’s<\/a>!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Graduation season will be here before we know it (ask any high school or college senior and they’ll surely be able to tell you the exact amount of time until its arrival, down to the hour or minute). But every backyard BBQ you attend, every piece of overly frosted cake you eat, every ice cold […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":1064,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[109,112,110,111,108],"class_list":["post-707","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-guides","tag-buyers-guide","tag-college","tag-gift-ideas","tag-graduates","tag-graduation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/707","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=707"}],"version-history":[{"count":61,"href":"https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/707\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":773,"href":"https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/707\/revisions\/773"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1064"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=707"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bensbargains.com\/thecheckout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}