Best Tips for Graduation Party Decorations, Food, and More 2025

We are a reader-supported site and receive compensation from purchases made through these links. See more about our Privacy and Affiliate policies here

We asked our community of nearly 300,000 parents for some of their best ideas for graduation party decorations and they gave us this treasure trove of tips. From deciding on a color scheme to what refreshments to serve, these super-creative ideas can be scaled for small gatherings or enormous, multi-family open house parties with large guest lists.

 Graduation party decorations

What colors to use?

Should the party colors be from high school or college? There is no right or wrong answer and your teen may have a strong feeling about using one, both, or “none of the above.” If your teen wants to include colors from both schools, here are some very clever ways to do that. 

Graduation invitations and announcements in high school colors, party decorations in college colors.

Indoor decorations college, outdoor decorations high school

Graduation party high school colors, college colors for going away party in August

Use high school colors for plates/napkins for the main course and use college colors for dessert

High school colors for the party in backyard and plant annual flowers in colors of the college

High school colors for party and hang college t-shirts behind the serving table

Set up a candy buffet with high school colors on one side, college on other

Your teen may also choose “neither” and might prefer to decorate with a favorite color or a totally different palate.  Their choice — any color scheme that appeals to their eye is completely fine.

Tabletop and decorations

Food and refreshments

From super-simple to over-the-top elaborate, refreshments will vary depending on the time of day, number of attendees, and your party budget. One mom reminded us that accurate quantity calculations are impossible and said “you will always be a little wrong on quantity, so pick things that can be frozen and just do your best!” 

• Food bars have replaced buffets as a popular way to serve teens and we have heard of families preparing tacos and fajita bars for dinner and made-to-order pancakes or omelets for brunch.






• Consider hiring food trucks for the party. They bring all the ingredients, prepare and serve dinner and drive the mess away afterward. Kids love this very trendy approach to eating.






• If you want to avoid serving a meal at your party, plan one for the middle of the day and just have snacks.






• Cookies, cakes and cupcakes are a big part of any graduation party. Decorate with the colors of your grad’s high school, college or both. Baking these yourself is a labor of love, but if you have a favorite bakery, take a look at Pinterest and collect ideas.






• Booking an ice cream truck to come to the party is usually a huge hit for the grads. What’s a sweeter sound than that jingle announcing the arrival of ice cream?






• If you plan to prepare a big meal, go with regional favorites — barbecue or chile in the southwest, clam bakes in the northeast, crawfish boil in the southeast.






• Think about a brunch with breakfast casseroles, lots of crispy bacon, pastries, biscuits with varied jams, mini Quiche, juices, and lots of coffee.






• Have lots of water iced down and readily accessible, especially for very hot daytime events.

Here’s Why You Can Trust Us

The Grown and Flown team includes three moms who have raised 8 young adults and have been working on product lists for over 12 years now, making them experts. When selecting products they survey the Grown and Flown Parents Facebook group of nearly 300,000 parents of teens, tweens and young adults. They do opinion polls, surveys and ask open-ended questions. They search for products that combine reasonable prices with high quality and are recommended by the large following. With recommendations from major retailers, trustworthy publications, and social media influencers, this post selected a range of products, paying close attention to reviews and price tags.

You May Also Enjoy Reading:

Party Ideas: How to Celebrate Your Senior’s Big Day

Photo credits: Marybeth Bock, Kelly Radi