Graduation

Facts

2012 Product Features

Greeting Cards

• Hallmark offers more than 400 graduation card designs – most featuring the graduation year – and include cards for:
  • Professions (nurse, law, medical doctor, pharmacist, veterinarian, dentist).
  • Post-graduate degrees (doctorate, master’s and MBA).
  • High school and college.
  • Pre-school, kindergarten, grade school, middle school and junior high.
  • Teachers, coaches, grad-to-grad and parents of the graduate.
• The cards range from serious, complimentary, success-oriented and inspirational to humorous. High school and college cards tend to focus on accomplishments and good wishes for the future.
• Card prices start at 99 cents.
• Cards With Technology include four cards with motion and sound, two cards with fiber optics and sound and two money/gift card holder cards with sound and special designs. One card features a diploma dancing to MC Hammer’s “U Can’t Touch This.” Another plays Billy Joel’s “Big Shot” and depicts a graduate and a limousine.
• Postage-Paid Greetings make mailing graduation cards easier. The 12 designs include high school, college and nieces and nephews. Just sign, seal and send!
• Three new designs are among the 12 highly-crafted Boutique Greetings that come with adornments such as gems and other special touches, including sound.
• Mahogany offers 29 cards for African-American graduates from preschool to college, including money/gift-card holders, sorority and fraternity cards, and one card for graduates of historically black colleges and universities.
• Hallmark Sinceramente offers 38 Spanish-language graduation cards for Hispanic consumers. The line includes teacher appreciation and money holder cards, which also are compatible with gift cards.
• Several graduation cards incorporate Star Wars, Peanuts and Disney characters.
• Hallmark.com offers graduation cards that consumers can customize by adding personal messages and/or photos. Hallmark.com provides card options appropriate for preschool graduation up to college graduation. After consumers customize their graduation card, Hallmark.com will address, stamp and mail them to the recipient.

• To make sure graduates are recognized, Hallmark offers a free service that helps a group of people “shower” the graduate with a mailbox full of congratulations and well wishes. Through Card Showers from Hallmark at Hallmark.com, people can easily set up the shower, invite people to participate and monitor the card-sending.

Celebrations & Gifts

• Many people celebrate graduations by announcing the accomplishment to friends and family and by hosting parties. Hallmark.com features customizable graduation party announcements, invitations and thank-you notes for the many gifts graduates receive.
• To celebrate and remember the big day, Hallmark offers a variety of gifts, memory-keeping products:
  • A Graduation 2012 Photo Album with 50 designed pages for $9.95 with each purchase of three Hallmark cards at Hallmark Gold Crown stores.
  • New! Graduation 2012 Flip-Flops send the graduate out into the world in style for $9.95 with any purchase at Hallmark Gold Crown stores.
  • Collect autographs and sentiments from friends and family with the 2012 Autograph Grad Dog or a 2012 Grad Monkey, or a 2012 autograph book.
  • Three plush formats serve as money/gift card holders and include Team Cool Snoopy, 2012 Grad Bear and 2012 Moo-Lah cow.
  • Picture frames, including a tassel and photo frame, a frame with space for signatures and well wishes, a personalized caption frame and a 2012 dated frame.
  • Other commemorative items include items a tassel holder, Graduate Hallmark Keepsake Ornament, sound buttons, ceramic mugs, magnets, paperweights. key chains and a Graduation Instant Scrapbook.
  • Peanuts and Star Wars are among the many themed gifts available to give graduates.
• Hallmark Gift Books make perfect presents for the graduate or for a special teacher who made a difference. Two new books, Congrats, Grad! and Countdown to College, help graduates build excitement for their freshman year. Other titles include College Survival Guide: Tips, Tricks and a Little Financial Aid and Reach for the Stars and Other Advice for Life’s Journey.
• Hallmark also offers 2012 graduation gift wrap and gift bags, graduation party supplies and graduation stickers. The gift wrap collection includes unique ways to wrap up gifts of money or gift cards. Two small bags with tissue and trim are ideal ways to add pizazz to a gift card presentation. Consumers can showcase the year of the graduating class with gift bags, gift wrap and even wrapping tissue. Designs are appropriate for high school and college graduations.
• Hallmark Party offers a new gift box that consumers can display at parties. It can be an ideal place for guests to place cards or small gifts.

Celebration History

• Today’s graduation ceremony is the modern equivalent of the ancient rite of passage from youth into adulthood celebrated in many tribes and clans. Commencement is the contemporary way to acknowledge that an important milestone has been passed.
• Early degree ceremonies took place in the mid-12th century at the University of Bologna, and soon after, at Paris, Oxford and Cambridge. Harvard was the first American college to hold a commencement ceremony in 1642.
• Graduation gowns reflect the general manner of dress in the late Middle Ages and Renaissance period. Many are black, although the gowns used in many high school ceremonies reflect school colors. The sleeves of a collegiate graduation gown indicate the level of a graduate’s degree.
• The four-sided graduation cap first appeared in the 16th century in Scotland. It originally was known as a “trencher” cap because it looked like an inverted serving board – a trencher – with a bowl on it. The term “mortarboard” developed in the 19th century.

• High-school graduates in the United States began wearing the now traditional commencement cap and gown in 1908.

In Stores

Available at Hallmark Gold Crown® stores nationwide and wherever Hallmark products are sold. Use the store locator on Hallmark.com to find the nearest Hallmark Gold Crown store.