If you’re looking for a perfect graduation gift, the promise of care packages adds charm and love to any gift. Include a few homemade coupons for care packages for freshman year. Then mark your calendar so you’ll remember. Make a few loaves at a time and freeze them. Then when you want to send a last-minute gift you’ll have the perfect thing waiting for you.​

When you host a care package cookie exchange you’re not just getting pretty treats, you’re socializing with friends going through the same empty nest/emotional leave-taking. For college kids, the box that eventually arrives on campus says it’s not just you who misses him. It’s the whole neighborhood. Besides exchanging items, organize labeling, boxing, and mailing the packages.

Microwavable Goodies

Every dorm room has a microwave, so why not send a package filled with easy to make microwaveable food? Start with the obvious—popcorn and soup, for example—but there are lots of other great ideas for easy, quick meals. Brown rice comes in microwaveable packages, and there are individual cakes that can be made in the microwave in minutes. Other items to include:

Drinks, such as tea, coffee, and hot cocoaMints, gum, gummy candies, hard candiesSnacks, such as pretzels, chips, popcorn, energy bars

You may be able to order a birthday cake and even have it delivered by the school mascot. Bakeries in college towns may also offer on-campus deliveries for a customized cake. If you decide to send your own birthday box, you will need to be a bit less traditional. Frosted cakes don’t do well in the mail, so consider pumpkin bread, banana bread, or carrot cake or a batch of cookies. For a better night’s sleep, consider sending a sleep mask, earplugs, or noise-canceling headphones. After the first semester, your student probably needs to restock on essentials, such as soap, shampoo, hair styling products, deodorant, toothpaste, laundry detergent, and razor blades. The inevitable exposure to others’ germs may need some hand sanitizer, all-purpose spray cleaner, and cold remedies. Send holiday decorations for Halloween, Christmas, Hanukkah, Valentine’s Day—any holiday will do. You can find lots of seasonal and inexpensive decor at a dollar store. Handwritten notes or drawings from younger siblings, photos of the family or pets, the hometown newspaper, or a favorite memento can be packed up with other items.

Beef jerky or hard salamiCalming herbal teas such as chamomile, peppermint, or honey gingerDried fruits and nutsInstant soups and instant oatmealLavender-scented lotion or pillow for stress reliefStarbucks gift cardWhole-grain crackers and nut butter