We pay out of pocket and the VP Social makes "reccomendations" of things to get them so that no new member gets more stuff or less stuff than others on big sis pick up. We are famed around campus for spoiling our new members and our little sisters! I picked up my little last spring and probably spent about $150 on big sis pick up night and $100 on initiation gifts, including active test gifts (gift baskets we give them the night they take their national active exam). Most of the money is spent on embroidering: I had a zip-up big sis hoodie (everyone does), a bath towel, a fleece blanket, a letter t-shirt, and a letter sweatshirt embroidered for her, among all her other gifts. We also "make" a lot of our gifts: puffy painting a candy jar, painting a cute trash can, painting letters on a picture frame, etc.

However, I was just discussing this with my roommate earlier, actually. One of her good friends is a Kappa here, and part of their new member dues go to the big sisters who are picking up.

I'm so excited !!!! I know exactly what i'm giving my little (if I get one). I definitely have to giv her my hawaiian shirt and leigh, and even though it isn't our tradition, I'm going to give her a paddle. My brother's fraternity the littles give bigs paddles and bigs give littles paddles when they activate. I just think it would be cool. And I loved the paddle I did for my active. It was super cute and I can't wait to do another one! My mom is allready planning letters for my brother's little and mine. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAhhhh! Recruitment needs to start allready

Ours is all out of pocket. Our chapter tries to set limits at $125 or so, but some people go crazy. I've heard of some girls spending about $600, which I think is crazy. Because of that, we have our ceremony, then we take our littles back to our places to give them their baskets. It kinda takes the fun out of seeing what everyone got, and it makes some girls feel badly because they can't afford gifts that are expensive. I wish some people would listen to the limits.

I think I spent around $125-150 on each of my littles. I definitely couldn't afford it at the time, but I just saw some cute stuff. I made a lot of things.

ETA: Christmas is a fabulous time to get AXO stuff. Everything is scarlet and olive, and there are tons of angels and lyres out there.

My pledge fam has a bunch of traditions... on the first night someone brings you a cookie cake and milk and has you fill out a card guessing who you think your pledge mom is... then they give it back to you on the last night (i forgot whether it was right before or right after revealing)

we also have "family letters" which are given on initiation day (my family letters are a grey sweatshirt w/ medium wine letters w/ silver blue backing -- we all have the exact same ones from the exact same place)

i'm going to start a new tradition of giving my pledge baby a betta fish (a pi betta phish hehe) on day 1, since that's what i got from my pledge mom. (my fish was wine and blue too.. hehe)

my suitemate's family tradition is to pass down this white bear that has a bib embriodered with "pi baby phi" -- its really cute

i cant wait for rush... too bad its not till january :rolleyes:

I've honestly NEVER heard of a chapter that doesn't buy big/lil items out of pocket.

I have a Kappa Phi little from Spring 2003. Our littles get gifts almost every week throughout their about 6-8 week pledge period. They usually aren't anything elaborate. We try not to go too crazy b/c you don't want some littles getting spoiled, and some getting shafted. When I was a big, there was a $20 max imposed.


They get candy, little stationery sets, inspirational books or cards, etc. Since we don't have items in the stores like the sororities do, we sometimes get creative and make things like quilts and notebooks. After her activation ceremony, the big gives her little a paddle and maybe one more gift (a set of letters, stuffed animal).

In Tri Sigma, bigs and littles are a big deal. We spoil them, but we don't go too crazy because alot of us have other financial commitments like tuition and dues. It depends , one of my sisters spent $75 while another spent close to $200.

We have Big/Lil Week, and the littles get gifts and clues every day. Usually, littles get some handmade things like picture frames, door hangers, and candles. They also get Sigma items from the local stores (mugs, stationery, and things you'd see on Greek 101). We also like to give hand me down shirts b/c those are really cool. Your final gift from your big is your matching big/lil hoodie or shirt (w/ big and lil sis embroidered underneath the letters). You also get your boat shaped paddle a few weeks after revealing.

I don't have one yet, but here's hoping

:) :)

I was active at 2 chapters and each did big/lil a different way.

The first we had themes for our gift like "Car Day" when you would get a keychain/license plate frame/sticker or whatever and "Paper Day" where you would get pens/notepads and such. We would also "decorate" (really trash it-I actually found confetti from my big sis 5 years ago today) her room and then we could give anything that was bigger so the other littles wouldn't see it.

The second we had a very specific list of what to get/make for each day. Bigs pick out a fabric based on things their little said she liked and decorate everything (tote bag, bulletin board, trash can, frame, scrapbook, block letters, etc.) with that fabric and the jerseys matched. It is alot of work but it is so cute. It can also be cheap unless you pick out an expensive fabric.

we don't do paddles at my chapter.. i dont think anyone has one

The way we do it is we have a week where the Bigs leave their Littles presents and notes with clues. Then at the end of the week we do Big/Lil revealing where the littles get even more gifts. We don't put a limit or anything on it. The only thing we do is that the first night of Big/Lil Week the Bigs have to make a poster for their Little and decorate their doors. Some family trees have certain things that it's tradition for them to give to their littles. For initiation, the little decorates a paddle for her Big, and the Big makes a pillow for her Little. In addition, we have to pass down a set of family tree letters, get her little another set of letters (if not more!), gifts for initiation, and make her another poster and decorate her door again.

Now, as I'm reading this, it sounds like you guys don't know who your big is till after you're initiated...is this true?

By us, the Littles find out who their Big is about halfway through pledging.

In Tri Sigma, our girls get their bigs about 2 weeks before initiation. In Kappa Phi, we reveal bigs right after the activation ceremony.

See, we get ours in the first weekend of pledging (like we get hints during the week, then on the weekend we find out who they are).

I'd never thought about that! I bet Easter is a good time for Theta Nu Xi gifts with our colors of lavender and powder blue!! Thanks for the idea!

We pay out of pocket... but we have a suggested budget to try and keep it fair and so that people know what they HAVE to get (we have some traditional gifts that every big gives their little, a mascot, pillow etc)

Here's a policy that is great in theory, but not really working in practice...

The new thing for our sorority is that the New Member Coordinator is supposed to budget for ALL new member gifts, and that the only out of pocket expenses the "big" incurs are writing notes and very small and inexpensive gifts which are optional. We're very big on spending one on one time together, though. The district officers who oversee budgets and the new member program do check to see that new member gifts have been budgeted, but there are still "bigs" who go all out and spend lots of money, and chapters that encourage the "bigs" buying everything.

The reason for all gifts coming from the chapter budget is so more initiated sisters will want to become Diamond sisters (what we call the big/littles) because a lot of the time women are deterred because of the expense.

When I was a collegian, our chapter had a policy that any gifts you gave had to be given off sorority grounds. This way, if Suzy Q got tons of stuff and Amy Alpha didn't, there wouldn't be any hurt feelings because it was a private and discreet exchange.

As a collegian, I embraced my arts-and-crafts side and made most of my diamond sister's gifts. It's very easy to bake cookies and then decorate the container with paint pens in sorority colors, her name, etc. There were some store-bought things, of course, but it was fun to spend the summer making things in anticipation of having a diamond sis!

Also, I made it point to call her at least once a week and get together... all the gifts in the world can't add up to cultivating a friendship and helping acclimate a new member to the chapter!