Creative Graduation Gift Ideas for Every Budget

Graduation is a lifetime achievement that should be commemorated with a special gift. While traditional gifts are always appreciated, books, gift certificates, or cash lack a certain mark of celebration. This year, look beyond the traditional graduations gifts and guarantee your graduate remembers the occasion for a lifetime. The following suggestions for high school graduation gifts and college graduation gifts go beyond the traditional gift ideas, taking all budgets into account.

Fun and Affordable

A comical high school graduation gift is this Giant Mortarboard Cap at Oriental Trading Company. For only $6.49, your graduate can show some distinction in the crowd of matching caps and gowns.

Create a special, custom-designed graduation t-shirt at uberprints.com. They have graduation designs to get you started, or you can create your own from scratch. Prices for a t-shirt with a digital image start around $15-$20.

A personalized graduation cartoon from CowboyChuck.com can be placed on a coffee mug, mouse pad, or notecards. You can choose from a cartoon of the graduate in a cap and gown, or-for a college graduation gift-a cartoon of the graduate's chosen career. Prices start around $16 for a coffee mug or $20 for a framed cartoon.

Upload photos to Snapfish and make a personalized calendar. An 8.5" x 11" calendar starts at $18.99. Create a sentimental high school graduation gift by starting in January with the student's first grade pictures, and memorialize the twelve years of school over each month of the year.

For the ultimately personal graduation gift, write a story, memoir, or a collection of poems for your graduate and self-publish it a Lulu.com. A published paperback book starts at about $12 for 32 pages.

Pricey but Practical

Chip in for the graduation party and spark the celebration with a gift of personalized ice cream. Ecreamery.com has several custom flavors like Bravo Batter (Premium Cake Batter Ice Cream with Reese's Peanut Butter Cups) or Congratulations Graduate! (Chocolate Gelato with Raspberry Swirls) created especially for graduation gifts. A half-gallon starts at $49.99, plus shipping.

If the graduate is preparing to enter the workforce, offer to pay for a professional resume-writing service. ResumeWriters.com offers gift certificates for a complete resume package or a specific dollar amount. A student/grad resume package starts at $199.95.

A practical but creative college graduation gift is a care package for that first apartment. After all, what new graduate wants to spend that first paycheck on things like dish towels or trash bags? The Home Sweet Home Care Package at GiftBaskets.com is a good start at about $50. If you're the DIY-type, buy a big laundry basket or hamper and fill it with things like towels, cleaning products, food storage containers, or tools.

The Grand Gesture

Maybe you know a high school graduate who dreams of being an actor. A symphony composer? A book store owner? At VocationVacation.com, you can purchase a Dream Job Vacation for the new graduate, a chance to experience his or her dream job first-hand. Prices vary according to the dream job experience ($1249 for 2 days as an actor, $949 for 2 days as a book store owner), and gift certificates are available.

After several years of study and hard work, what could commemorate the accomplishment of a lifetime better than the experience of travel? A trip around the world is a once-in-a-lifetime gift for a once-in-a-lifetime achievement. Give the important graduate in your life a plane ticket around the world. StarAlliance.com offers Round the World Fares. Prices depend on destinations, but the graduate can plan a Round-the-World Trip using the site's Round the World Mileage Calculator.

Just as completing one's studies marks a transition into adulthood, so does ownership of a fine piece of jewelry mark one as an adult. At Tiffany.com, create a unique, personalized Celebration Ring for the woman graduate or a set of engraved cuff links for the male graduate.