Graduation Party Ideas & Personalized Grad Favors

Graduation is a nostalgic time of transition and celebration. Graduates are moving on to the next stage of their life and family and friends gather at their party to wish them good luck. Hosting a graduation party requires a lot of time, effort and ideas. There are many ways you can host a creative and fun grad party while staying within your budget and adding a personal touch. 

For High School graduation parties, you can host a backyard gathering, choose a unique location favored by the graduate like a hotel or restaurant, have a joint party for multiple graduates or have a potluck with family and friends. For your unique favor in honor of your graduate, display personalized chocolate graduation party favors next to your party platter. You can feature the graduate's senior picture on a colorful photo wrapper like our item SG56 Our Class.

For College graduation parties, consider hosting an intimate dinner party with a small group of family and friends, have a backyard or fancy dinner party with the graduate's favorite theme or create a trivia game centered around the graduate's school. Add one of our popular graduation party favors like our personalized wrapper SG37 Diploma Certificate.

Check out more high school and college party ideas at punchbowl.com.

National Teacher's Day and Teacher Appreciation How-To's

According to National Education Association website, "the origin of National Teacher Day are murky.  Arkansas teacher Mattye Whyte Woodridge wrote to Eleanor Roosevelt, who in 1953 persuaded the 81st Congress to proclaim a National Teacher Day. NEA, along with its Kansas and Indiana state affiliates and the Dodge City (Kan.) Local, lobbied Congress to create a national day to celebrate teachers. Congress declared March 7, 1980 as National Teacher Day for that year only. NEA and its affiliates continued to observe National Teacher Day in March until 1985, when the NEA Representative Assembly voted to change the event to Tuesday of the first full week of May."

At the NEA's website you will find many useful tools you can use to celebrate and honor the teacher(s) that have made an impact on you and your community. Apples For The Teacher is a fun website for kids and offers fun games and activities to use in celebrating Teacher Appreciation Week. Next year, National Teacher Appreciation Week and National Teacher Appreciation Day will fall on May 6 - May 10, 2013 and Tuesday, May 7, 2013 respectively, so plan ahead. But with the end of the school year approaching, you don't need to wait and you don't need to spend a lot of money. View our delightful selection of Personalized Chocolate designed just for Teacher Appreciation Day anytime.

Tips for Your Next Workplace Safety Programs

June is National Safety Month from the National Safety Council and with it comes the potential boredom associated with the same messages: Safety First, Zero Accidents, Use your Eyes and Save a Finger. The list goes on. It's tempting to just let Safety Month slip by, but employees should be trained in and know safety procedures.

National Safety Month is an opportunity to make employees aware of changes in job safety or increase their safety risk awareness in the workplace. The National Safety Council suggests changing focus each of the four weeks during the campaign, ranging from Wellness and Preventing Slips to Driving Safety.

If you have a "days without accidents" program, make employees aware of how long the company has gone without an accident with the Safety Days promotional chocolate bar from CARSON wrappedhersheys.com.

The National Safety Council has set a goal to prevent an additional 10,000 deaths and 1 million injuries by 2014, and through your support of efforts, such as National Safety Month. For more ideas on National Safety Month, watch the NSC's YouTube Video.

Father's Day History & Gifts

Father's Day is a celebration honoring fathers and paternal bonds as well as fatherhood and the influence of fathers in our society. While many countries celebrate it on the third Sunday of June, it is also celebrated widely on other days.

The first Father's Day was celebrated on June 19, 1910 in Spokane, Washington thanks to Sonora Louise Smart Dodd.  Sonora, raised by her father after her mother died during childbirth, was inspired to create a day to honor fathers after hearing a Mother's Day sermon. For 62 years Sonora Dodd remained the driving
force behind official recognition for this special day and in 1972 President Richard Nixon signed a proclamation that the third Sunday in June officially be recognized as Father's Day, a national holiday. Read more about Father's Day history at familyfun.go.com.

CARSON wrappedhersheys.com offers Caddy Daddy wrapped Hershey's bars and they are a great way to sweeten Dad's day. 

Check out babycenter.com for some other great ways to make new dads feel extra special this year or cook up some fun with these recipe ideas. 

Trendy Names in 2012

When you are a soon-to-be parent, choosing your baby’s name can be a difficult task. At CARSON wrappedhersheys.com we see a variety of baby names from unique to traditional. We never know what we are going to see on our birth announcements next!

For 2012, we did a little research to see what the experts believe are the upcoming trends in baby naming. We found that celebrity influence will play a large role in popular names. Mariah Carey started the trend by naming her daughter Monroe after her idol, Marilyn. Other names predicted to top the charts are Pippa as in Pippa Middleton and Blue Ivy after Beyonce and Jay Z’s newborn.

In addition to celebrity names becoming popular, the characters they play are also forecasted to make a splash in 2012. For example, Twilight characters such as Bella, Edward and Jacob are expected to be well-liked. Even villainous character names like Arlo from Justified are going to appear.

For boys, western names like Weston, Wyatt and Maverick are guessed to be popular among parents. Even oddball names like Landry, after Tom the football coach, and Gatsby, after the novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald, are going to emerge in 2012.

For girls, adjective names like Loyal and True and names beginning with the letter “A” such as Arianna and Adelaide will be in style. The biggest surprise will be the old-fashioned name Betty reappearing in popular culture. Possibly after the famous Betty White?

Whether you decide to jump on the bandwagon of names or go against the grain, we are excited to share the joy of your newborn by helping spread the word with our HERESHEIS or HEREHEIS popular birth announcements.

Fun Fall Activities

The leaves are turning and CARSON wrappedhersheys.com can’t wait to participate in some fall activities. Not only are we excited about our new autumn designs like our Halloween wrapper HH68 Monster Mash and our wedding wrapper WH37 First Sight, we are eager to have some fall fun. Check out these top ten things to do in the fall.

1. Take a trip to a local apple orchard.

2. Support your high school at a Friday Night Football Game.

3. Visit a Pumpkin Patch.

4. Organize a neighborhood bonfire.

5. Go leaf collecting.

6. Make your Halloween costume.

7. Bake Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies.

8. Visit a Corn Maze or Haunted House.

9. Take a scenic hike.

10. Build a scarecrow.

Back to School Treats & Tidbits

August is here and all of you parents know what that means… THE KIDS ARE GOING BACK TO SCHOOL!! To celebrate we recommend sending your children back to school with goodies for their teachers and classmates. Sweeten up your child’s teacher with a bucket of Teacher Treats or welcome back friends with personalized Hershey’s wrapped chocolate bars. As you gear up this time of year, here are some fun facts you can share with your kids.

• Liquid Paper was created more than 50 years ago by Bette Nesmith Graham, a secretary who used her white paint mix to correct mistake. She is also the mother of the Monkees star Michael Nesmith.
• One pencil will draw a line 35 miles long.
• Each weekday approximately 480,000 yellow school buses carry 25 million kids to and from school.
• On April 23, 1635 the oldest public school was founded in the United States. Boston’s Latin School had Benjamin Franklin, John Hancock, and Samuel Adams as graduates.
• In ancient Greece teachers received gifts from citizens and were paid higher wages than skilled craftsmen. Their highest paid teachers taught music.
• Approximately $7.2 billion is spent at kid’s clothing stores before going back to school.
• Before the Great Depression, most Americans only completed eight years of school. High School became popular when communities saw the benefits of keeping teenagers in class to avoid the competition in the workforce
• Elmer, the bull on the bottle of Elmer’s Glue, was conceived as a mate for Elsie, Borden’s beloved “Spokescow.” Although officials in Borden’s chemical division wanted to use Elsie to sell glue, company honchos thought it’d be inappropriate to have the dairy cow pushing nonfood items. Elmer the bull was the compromise.

Sweet Wedding Traditions

Love is in the air this summer at CARSON wrappedhersheys.com as many happy couples choose to tie the knot. Even though June is the most popular month to get married, we stay busy creating personalized wedding favors all summer long. Not only should you check out our new 2011 wedding designs to get ready for the big day, you should learn about the following interesting facts behind your wedding traditions:

1. Engagement and wedding rings are worn on the fourth finger of the left hand because it was once thought that a vein in that finger led directly to the heart.

2. One of history’s earliest engagement rings was given to Princess Mary, daughter of Henry VII. She was two years old at the time.

3. Queen Victoria started the Western world’s white wedding dress trend in 1840—before brides simply wore their best dress.

4. The Roman goddess Juno rules over marriage, the hearth, and childbirth, hence the popularity of June weddings.

5. The phrase “Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue” symbolizes continuity, optimism for the future, borrowed happiness, and fidelity.

6. Flower girls traditionally threw flower petals in the bride’s path to lead her to a sweet, plentiful future.

7. Ancient Greeks & Romans thought the veil protected the bride from evil spirits.

8. Many cultures believed that with their first kiss the bride and groom exchanged spirits and part of their souls.

9.  Guests in ancient times would tear off part of the bride’s gown as tokens of good luck, leading to the tradition of throwing the garter and bouquet.

10.  It is believed that the European aristocracy began the tradition of bestowing wedding favors upon all of their guests. They were called bonbonniere and consisted of small boxes of crystal or porcelain, which held delicate confections such as cubes of sugar, then considered the ultimate symbol of wealth and royalty.

11. The first weddings comprised of a groom taking his bride by capture so her relatives and villagers couldn't find them. They hid for one moon phase, also known as the honeymoon, and drank mead to make them more amorous.

12. The groom carries the bride across the threshold to bravely protect her from evil spirits lurking below.

From saying “I Do” to wearing something blue, we wish all of the brides and grooms a wonderful wedding day full of long-lasting tradition!

America’s Favorite Flavor & Our Independence

When I think of July 4th I picture delicious backyard barbeques, bursting fireworks and waving American flags. Did you know that over 150 million hot dogs will be eaten on Independence Day? Or that the hamburger meat on your grill most likely came from a cow in Texas? I never imagined that one out of every two Americans would be scarfing down Franks with me or that when I bite into a patty I’m probably chowing down on a little piece of the Lone Star State. Not only did these facts surprise me, so did the rest of these tidbits about America the Beautiful, gaining our independence and our love of chocolate. I will definitely be sharing these with my family this weekend!

 Did you know…

• Benjamin Franklin voted for the turkey to be our national animal, but John Adams and Thomas Jefferson decided upon the bald eagle. Do you think we’d still eat as much Turkey at Thanksgiving if Franklin got his way? 

• The origin of Uncle Sam probably began in 1812 when Samuel Wilson, a meat packer, provided meat to the United States Army. The shipments were stamped with the initials “U.S.” and someone joked that it stood for “Uncle Sam”.

• A Congressional representative rode 80 miles on horseback to reach Philadelphia and break a tie in support of independence.

• Even before they declared their independence from England, the American colonists were making chocolates.

• Americans consume approximately 11.7 pounds of chocolate per person a year. Maybe they just can’t get enough of our wrapped chocolate miniatures!

• Most Americans have to buy a chocolate treat for themselves when they purchase one for someone else. 

• Seventy-one percent of American chocolate eaters prefer milk chocolate. This is one reason why our Standard 1.55oz Hershey’s chocolate bars are milk chocolate!

• Chocolate is America's favorite flavor.

Whether you are eating hot dogs, hamburgers or Hershey’s bars, CARSON wrappedhersheys.com wishes everyone a happy and safe Independence Day weekend!

Honoring Old Glory

On June 14, 1777 we adopted our flag which we have nicknamed Old Glory. It has been a symbol of unity, democracy and independence for our nation ever since. Although no one truly knows who designed or made our first flag, we can identify the meaning of each part of the flag. The 13 stripes stand for the original colonies and the 50 stars for each state. The colors of our flag also have a less-known meaning. The red stripes represent courage and resilience while the white ones mean purity. The blue background behind the stars symbolizes our country’s determination and righteousness. All of these parts combined define the United States.

To celebrate the symbol of who we are, Harry Truman declared June 14th as “Flag Day” in 1949. Every year on this day cities across the country from Washington to New York commemorate the American Flag in a parade. Honoring the flag continues all week long for “National Flag Week” and many citizens hang the flag proudly outside their homes.

At CARSON wrappedhersheys.com, we have several designs to not only celebrate Flag Day, but Independence Day. My personal favorite is our America the Beautiful design, but all of the wrappers perfectly combine our respect for our nation with our love of chocolate.

Happy Flag Day!