Cover: Wisdom, Success, Pride. Inside: Congratulations and Best Wishes On Your Graduation.

Related Links: • Thank-You Notes • Marking Milestones Is an American Family Tradition

Cover: For A Special High School Graduate... Our hopes grow stronger... our reach ever higher... seeking the endless possibilities of tomorrow. Inside: There's so much POTENTIAL and PROMISE in who you are. And you have so many people who care about you and will do whatever they can to help you along the way. You really can ACCOMPLISH anything... Just DREAM up the life you want and go after it. Congratulations.

Cover: Congratulations On Your Master's Degree. Inside: All your hard work and dedication have paid off. You should feel great about your achievement. Congratulations on your success and best wishes for the future.

Cover: Know what comes after Preschool? Inside: Lots of Great Big Hugs! Way to Go, Preschool Graduate!

Cover: Success is achieved through vision, inspiration, and resilient determination. And when success comes to one of us, it comes to all of us. Inside: By your success, you raise our spirits. With your determination, you carry our dreams. In pleasure and pride, we lift you up today. Congratulations.

Graduation 2007 Tassel-Keeper Frame

Assorted Graduation 2007 Gift Bags

Cover: I know we're graduating, but can we have homework? Inside: Congratulations on not having to deal with that girl any more.

Graduation 2007 Partyware

Cover: Fun, Memories, Dreams, Wisdom, Hope, Inspiration, Graduate. Inside: May your GRADUATION be just the beginning of a FUTURE filled with achievement and happiness.

TRENDS
• Money is the most popular graduation gift, and money-holder cards are top sellers for Hallmark. The card serves as a keepsake long after the money has been spent. Money and gift card presenters also are available in the gift wrap line, including a musical option. Plush money presenters also are popular.

• Some graduation party guests find it difficult to shop for graduates because they often don’t know the graduate well. Whether starting life as an adult or heading off for college, they know graduates can use money and gift cards. Hallmark offers more than 60 money-holder graduation cards in 2007, the majority are designed to also be used as gift-card holders.

• Graduation is accepted as an important milestone in social and personal development. Today’s graduation celebrations include open houses, graduation parties and school sponsored after-ceremony receptions and parties.

• Graduation gifts often are themed and tend to be thought of as keepsakes. Friends give graduation cards and gifts to each other to say “good bye” or as mementos of times shared in school.

• Increasingly, graduates give thank-you cards and gifts to parents and teachers to express appreciation for guidance and support during their years of education.

WHEN
Most graduations occur in May and June, but some are as early as mid-April or as late as the first week in July. Mid-year college commencement ceremonies typically are in December.

HALLMARK RESEARCH
Industry-wide, nearly 77 million graduation cards will be given annually.

High school graduation is the No. 1 reason for purchasing graduation cards, and the average graduate receives 17.5 graduation cards. Sixty percent of all graduation cards are purchased for high-school graduates. College graduation is the No. 2 reason for buying graduation cards, and the average college graduate receives 7.5 cards.

The Class of 2007 includes more than 3.3 million high school graduates, about 1.5 million college undergraduate degrees, approximately 603,000 Master’s degrees, and more than 50,000 doctorates. (Source: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics)

HALLMARK PRODUCT NEWS
Hallmark offers more than 450 graduation cards, including specific cards for professions (nurse, law, medical doctor, pharmacist, veterinarian, dentist), cards for service (police academy, firefighter, EMT certification), and post-graduate degrees (doctorate, master’s and MBA). Cards for pre-school, grade school, middle school and junior high also are available as well as cards for teachers, coaches, bus drivers and grad-to-grad. The cards range from serious, success-oriented and inspirational to humorous. High school and college cards tend to focus on accomplishments and good wishes for the future.

A collection of nine graduation sound cards help the graduate celebrate. The cards feature traditional music such as “Pomp and Circumstance,” which resonates with consumers of all ages, and current music such as “Photograph” by Nickelback, a popular rock band. The cards also offer sound clips from college movie classics such as “Animal House” with John Belushi.

In addition, graduation is the first season in which Hallmark is introducing six sound card money holders that use the CD-quality sound chip technology. The sound card money holders also are designed to present gift cards. There are six designs in the Hallmark Gold Crown® channel. Songs include “We’re in the Money” and “I Just Want to Celebrate.”

Mahogany offers 29 cards for African-American graduates, including money/gift-card holders, and one card for graduates of historically black colleges and universities.

Sinceramente Hallmark offers 40 graduation cards with a mix of Spanish-language and bilingual cards especially for Latino consumers. The line includes money-holder cards, which also are compatible with gift cards.

A collection of Hallmark graduation gifts and mementos is suitable for all ages. Plush animals with mortarboards are perfect keepsakes for presenting monetary gifts or gift cards. The Hats Off Snoopy, available at a special promotional price, provides a place to slide the money or gift card. When you press his tummy, the hat pops up. Tassel keepers, commemorative photo frames and Instant Scrapbooks are useful and lasting gifts for high-school and college graduations.

Gift Books from Hallmark make perfect gifts for the graduate or for a special teacher who made a difference. Titles include School’s Out, Life’s On and The Road Ahead: A Faith-Based Guide for Today’s Teens.

Hallmark offers invitations, graduation gift wrap and gift bags, as well as graduation partyware, balloons and accessories. The gift wrap collection includes unique ways to wrap up gifts of money or gift cards including a mortarboard-shaped box that plays “Celebration” by Kool & the Gang when you lift the lid. Gift bags and wrap feature trendy designs using popular school colors and showcase the “Class of 2007.” Designs are appropriate for high-school and college graduations.

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.

Hallmark has been producing graduation cards since the 1920s.

PRODUCT LOCATIONS
Any store carrying the Hallmark brand offers a selection of cards and other products to celebrate graduation. To find the nearest Hallmark Gold Crown® store, use the store locator on Hallmark.com.

Cover: Life Lesson No. 15... Inside: Do what you love... It's what the world needs from you... it's what you were meant to do. Happy Graduation.

Labels: facts on graduation, graduation Trends 2007