Car decorating ideas for "drive through" graduations?

[corrie23]

My 8th grader's school is hosting a "drive-through" graduation this weekend where families will be allowed to drive their graduates in a parade of cars through the school parking lot and teachers will be on-site to wave goodbye to the students.

We are not permitted to stop/leave cars or exchange any items. We are also not allowed to honk horns or otherwise make noises that would be disturbing to the neighborhood. All participants must wear masks, even while in their cars (so it will be hard to identify who is is the vehicle).

We ARE allowed to decorate our cars. So, having never decorated a car before, I would love suggestions. It is the only way to express our gratitude and celebrate her accomplishment, so I'd like to go big.

Hit me with your best ideas, please and thank you. I want to order from Amazon ASAP to get my hands on whatever I need in time for Sunday!

[twowhat?]

Have your 8th grade make a poster-board sized sign with her name on it - our school asked us to do that and it was great because then all the staff could shout out the kids' names as we drove through, making it extra special!

Decorations: We used those giant tissue paper flowers. You can either make your own or order birthday party type decorations on Amazon. They are big! They are fluffy! They stand out, LOL! We tied them all over the roof racks, side view mirrors, back windshield wiper.

I saw cars with balloons tied on. One car had a "skirt" of metallic fringe affixed all around the sides and back and it made the COOLEST effect as they slowly drove - the fringe rippled and sparkled like shiny waves, so cool. Like this: https://www.amazon.com/Metallic-Frin...0717884&sr=8-1

And of course cars had things written all over the windows, e.g. "Congrats XXX!"

We weren't allowed to honk horns or things like that either BUT the school had set up speakers and were BLASTING music, and they had megaphones for shouting names and air horns. It was really special!! And we let our kids stand up on the seats and stick out of the sunroof so they had 360 views of the whole thing.

[bw52]

Dumb question, but how do you put on fringe or anything for that matter without it damaging the car? We’re doing a parade in a few days too.

[PZMommy]

I've heard painter's tape works for putting things on the car. I've not tried yet, as our parade isn't until June 5th.

[PunkyBoo]

We used blue painters tape to affix signs on my car last weekend for a friend's grad parade. DH would NEVER risk damaging the car and that's what he grabbed. It worked just fine just make sure you pull it all off before letting it bake on in the sun.

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[klwa]

For a graduation parade & the nursing home parade for my GFIL, we just did window paint. That's what I'm planning to do for the elementary school & middle school parades next week. Simple, easy to clean up, and doesn't mess up the car.

[lizzywednesday]

I've heard painter's tape works for putting things on the car. I've not tried yet, as our parade isn't until June 5th.

Painter's tape and, believe it or not, Clear Contact work really well without damaging the finish.

[cuca_]

I’m a little late to this, but we had a graduation parade today. I purchased some of those gold word balloons at Target and had Congrats on the back and Yay on the front. https://www.target.com/p/congrats-sc...2/-/A-54011930. I also hung a tassel garland on each side (https://www.target.com/p/bright-tass...2/-/A-51487096). Also had balloons coming out of the sunroof and wrote with chalk markers on the windows.

I used long pieces of masking tape to hold the letters down and keep them from flapping all over the place.

I was able to get the target stuff through drive up pickup.

Congratulations to your eight grader!