Simple Graduation Party Ideas

I promised you Monday that I would share the simple things I did to decorate for our home-grown graduation ceremony and party.

I had created a Graduation board on Pinterest several years ago when my first son graduated. I added a few more pins when I was searching for easy and not very expensive ways to decorate for THIS party. You can follow that board here.

Graduation Themed Treats

First up was some easy graduation themed treats. I loved some of the mortar board treats I found on the web but a few of them were too complicated. These were just right. Here’s my version. 

All it took was mini peanut butter cups, chocolate covered graham crackers, and fruit-by-the-foot. I unwrapped all the pb cups, smeared a tiny smear of peanut butter and attached the cookie on top. Then I snipped the fruit leather into strips and snipped the ends to form a tassel. That was attached with pb too. Easy and so cute!

Next up was this pin of diploma cookies.

I bought two tins of Pirouette cookies and tied them with some red cording. Easy peasy yet everyone knew exactly what they were!

Simple Graduation Decorations

I have these two apothecary jars that needed something graduation-y. Annie and I went to three different stores looking for plastic mortar boards to fill them but could not find a thing! So I decided to make them out of cardstock and yellow floss. The little one on the table is a cake topper made of plastic that I had kept from Tommy’s graduation. That’s what I used as my model. I should have made more to fill them all the way but it had gotten late and I was tired. I had wanted to make a slideshow but in the end we printed up about 60 pictures of Timothy through the years and spread them out all over the place. My daughter was getting rid of this chickenwire picture hanger she had made from a Goodwill frame, so we hung it up and clipped pictures to it, stuck more in the mirror next to it, and scattered them around on end tables and the TV cabinet. It was fun to look through those and see Timothy through the years.I think his high school friends who didn’t know Timothy as a little kid had fun looking at them too!

Easy Outdoor Graduation Decorations

This pin inspired this CONGRATS sign. I created it on Canva. If you want the file, let me know in the comments with an email address and I will send it to you. I printed them up on cardstock and glued the letters onto paint sticks from Lowe’s. (So sad that the sprinklers ruined these the following morning! Oh well! I can easily recreate them!) I purchased a dozen blue, grey (silver) and white balloons (UNF’s colors) and put them in the front and back yards.

Since we had just finished constructing this shelter/lean-to/gazebo (we don’t know what to call it), we wanted to dress it up. (And it was perfect on this sunny day!) I found this pin for how to make streamers out of dollar store plastic tablecloths. Since I couldn’t find grey tablecloths we just did blue and white. Annie and I folded them vertically and then she cut them with a ruler and rotary cutter, then tied knots at the top. Then the whole thing was stapled to the wooden structure. It fluttered in the breeze and made the space festive!

I created these mason jar flower center pieces with a 2016 pick which I also created on Canva. I printed them on cardstock and double sided taped them over a wooden skewer.

I liked how they looked on the tables. 

And finally, I bought a few things, like these paper plates, from Target. My mom wrapped up the plasticware in white paper napkins to look like more diplomas, like this pin.

And that’s it! It made the day feel special but it wasn’t crazy over-the-top with the decorations. I hope these simple ideas for decorating will inspire you as you celebrate a graduation in the future!

To read about our special Homeschool Graduation Ceremony, go here.