A class reunion committee on a budget needs to come up with ideas for inexpensive gifts that are also memorable and fun. The best gifts reflect the theme of the event, stimulate conversation or give participants a small token to remember the day. Any inexpensive gift will sparkle when you choose bright colors and use a liberal dose of shiny glitter.

Since name tags are a necessity for a reunion, they can double as gifts if you make them special. Rent or borrow a button-maker to create permanent name tags, and use yearbook pictures with names handwritten underneath. Or, make buttons that celebrate the reunion itself with the graduation year, the participant's name and a photo of the high school at the time of graduation.

Use high school mementos to make centerpieces for each table. If possible, use items from the school itself, such as school stickers and patches that you can strew over the tabletop along with glitter and streamers in the school colors. Some high schools may even donate items with the school logos to the reunion committee. Items like pencils with the school logo can be arranged in colorful bouquets. For an activity and a gift, gather classmates together for a photo in front of the school, or in front of a school banner you've borrowed for the reunion.

Big cookies with the graduation year printed in icing, candy suckers or mini-candy bars with a school sticker pasted onto each one, or a bag of jelly beans in the school colors all add a festive tone to giveaways. If you have lots of time, create chocolate molds of a school mascot figurine by first making an impression of the figure in a pan filled with packed brown sugar, and then pouring in melted chocolate. Wrap the gifts with colorful cellophane paper and ribbon in the school colors, and use a brightly colored glitter pen to create a tag printed with the graduation year.

Incorporate a gift into the events of the reunion to save money. For a candle-lighting ceremony to remember classmates who have died, present each participant with a candle with the school logo attached. Or, schedule a visit and song fest by the current school mascot and give each participant a copy of their photo taken with the mascot. If you want to encourage mingling, ask each participant to bring a T-shirt and provide colorful pens for classmates to autograph each other's shirts.