Reuse and Recycle Your Graduation Regalia

Halloween was always a big deal around my house. I remember my best Halloween as a kid was the year my older cousin came over and put lots of make up on me and dressed me up. I took my own children trick or treating from the time they were very little until they wouldn't let me go with them anymore.

One of the most memorable years was the year my youngest daughter wore my graduation gown. I also had the cap and even the holder that was supposed to hold my diploma. It was empty when I got it since they were being sent out in the mail. I went back to school as an adult - after my children were born. This is the reason I had these items. Normally I'm not sure people keep their high school graduation gowns for 20 years and oftentimes the gown have to be returned.

My daughter was about nine at the time. She was the perfect age to go trick or treating as a graduate. If she had been older perhaps she wouldn't have been able to pull it off. The gown was black. I shortened it just by sewing the hem up. I'm not much of a sewer but this binding was really very easy to do.

The cap was a bit large on her as well. Luckily her hair was long so I was able to put in bobby pins and barrettes to keep it in place and though I remember fixing it a few times throughout the night it worked. I know that many high school graduates (and college graduates as well) hang up their tassels or perhaps put it somewhere never to be found again. Since I was an adult I didn't do that so my tassel was with my gown. My daughter had a real college tassel to wear.

Then of course we come to the cardboard holder. This was a round tube in which a small poster might come. It had nothing on it so we decorated it. This was a lot of fun because it was an area where we could work and play together. We painted and colored it and put the name of the high school in the town in which we lived on it. We put the year the following June would be.

Since she had to look older we had fun putting a lot of makeup on her. It was a great night. We actually recycled the picture we have of her that year. When she graduated from college we made up our own invitations and included that picture of her on it. I have to admit it was really cool!