Lil Sis gifts

[jharb]

Mine went back to my great-great grand sis. I think that might have been when they started doing families in my chapter. I'm not quite sure though! Maybe erniegurl00 could give a better answer!

PPL,
Jess

[CarolinaDG]

Hey... A Delta Gamma here... sorry to bust in, but one of your Pi Beta Phi's came to our board and said y'all had a big/lil board going...I'll tell you what all we do, and what I need help with...

Every day we do tons of candy, picture frames, cups, and one small thing other than the basic thing that we do the same... here are the basic things for every day:
Day 1: Clipboard
Day 2: Bulliten Board
Day 3: Trash Can filled with anything we can find (my big filled mine with candy... I think my mom and I had to throw most of it away... that's a LOT of candy!)
Day 4:Tailgate theme-A tailgating chair and cooler (I don't know what tailgating's like at y'alls school's, but here it's HUGE... from football games to Carolina Cup to just a day at the rocks... we always are in need of a cooler and tailgating chair)


My problem is, however, I've run out of cute sayings to put on things... I mean, I don't want to be tooo cheesy, and I want to be original... I figured y'all could help since not only are you from a different school (we don't have Pi Beta Phi's) but also an entirely different sorority! PLEASE help!

[Star Turtle]

hey carolinadg

i'm a dz who's busted in on this board a few times - one of the best things i've seen is people's signatures on greek chat - that's where i've seen some of the best greek-related sayings. and in t-shirt order books/webpages, you'll find some good sayings too!

[erniegurl00]

Jess,

Families have been going on for quite some time I do believe. It's pretty much an unspoken tradition that the Big Sis gives some sort of family tree either during revealing or soon afterwards.

My family tree stems back waaayyy back. The oldest sister in my tree is 9 generations back!!

[sairose]

Originally posted by Ginger
All the things you girls gave your littles!

My chapter was never huge on gift-giving, so now that I'm an alum, I think I'm going to spoil myself and give myself some of those things as presents!

I was always jealous of you DZs when I'd look for stuff in our greek store... I love turtles! I wondered on occasion how bad it would be just to replace that Z with an O.... just kidding

Eek, not big on gift giving? My SAI chapter goes crazy with it! LOL It's soooo much fun to spoil your lil rotten.

[breathesgelatin]

I had two little sisters the same year, so I had to really watch my budget. In our chapter, the first 5 weeks of pledgeship each new member receives a "Beta Buddy" that takes them out to eat and gives them a gift that is purchased by the sorority. Everyone gets the same gift each week. Then Big Sister week comes along. In my chapter each Big Sis gets the same gift one day of the week (one day is flowers, one is candy/food, one is decorations, etc.) For Big Sister Week, I:

• decorated their rooms with balloons, confetti and streamers--this is a very low budget thing, b/c all items can be purchased at the dollar store
• got a nice flower arrangement with wine carnations
• made breakfast in bed--I got cheap plastic plates, cups and bowls in wine and blue and got paint pens and decorated them with angels, arrows, letters, etc. Then I got little boxes of cereal, milk, and juice and put them with the plates outside their doors in the morning. I did the same thing for a huge bucket of candy
• one day we give collages with hints with who we might be! That same day I gave a bunch of cute knick-knacks I had picked up from a Greek store--cups, pins, stickers etc.
• the last day we traditionally give pajamas to wear to revelation... I forget if I gave anything else that day!

For Initiation, I:

• wrote meaningful letters to both of them
• gave them lavalieres
• took them to a nice dinner with the rest of the family
• my "aunt" (it's complicated ) gave them a turtle--our family mascot

One thing I have been wanting to do is make a family album or tree. One family in our chapter has an album that goes all the way back to colonization with pictures and whatnot. I have traced our family back to 1994 or so (we were colonized in '92) but I can't seem to get any farther. But I think I might make a decorative tree for my little-littles in a few months.

[aimers1525]

Hi ALL-
I am new to the board--a member of WI Delta-Marquette University, MIlwaukee, WI! I just wanted to offer some advice about little sisters because I absolutely adore my big and lil so I went crazy for my lil's initiation! Some of the most important things that my big sis passed down to and suggested to me to give were:
-our family has a tradition to give diagonal lavalieres
-tote bags (which are really helpful!)
-a hatbox that I painted and put "Pi Phi Memories" on top so she could put in her cards from initiation and other piphi stuff she collects over the years)
-a build-a-bear (they have little angel wings you can get--so cute)
-family letters that have been passed down for ever!
-a picture of our family (pictures of the two of you are good because she might not necessarily have pictures from pleding and i-week!)

Those are just some suggestions
Good Luck to all the chapters who have formal recruitment this Spring...including my own but I will be abroad for the semester
-Amy

[piphiarrow234]

i got my first Lil!!! this semester.. and a really cute gift in my family its a family tradition for us, we give Goldfish during big sis week its really cheep and its a friend for life (well as long as he lives i loved my fishy and my lil loved hers!@!
another relaly cute gift we do is scrapbooks, we get regular Binders and get padding and really pretty fabric, and cover the binder and get those wooden letters you put on a Paddle/arrow, and put letters on it, nad u have a scrap book. and its way fun to scrap book

<3Pi Phi LOve
Josie

[Lady Pi Phi]

Bumping this thread.


Anyway, one of the earlier posts mentioning passing down a lavalier. I love my lavalier. That was the first thing I bought. I also couldn't imagine passing it down to my little sister (even though I love her to death).
What about buying another lavalier and giving that to your little with the intention of her passing it down to her little?

[Txsurfinwaves]

My lavalier was passed down from my big, who got it from her big...and is actually from my great-great-gran big. It has been passed down in my family for a long time..however, i had a james avery angel necklace that i never take off( I put it on after my friend mike died)...and i attached my letters to that, so I think im going to have to buy a new one for my lil cause i can't seem to get my letters off( it kept falling off so i had to weld it pretty well to the chain.... )

[angelic1]

well i passed down my lavalier only bc it was gold.. and i dont wear gold. So since then it has been passed on.. kind of funny that I didnt mean to start a tradition.

Our familiy wears the diagonal lavalier as well only. So its a family tradition to have that one. I bought myself a silver diagonal one. I think that I am going to buy a straight down one as well next time I am in town just bc I like that style as well.

[breathesgelatin]

At our school, hardly anyone gets the lettered lavalieres. We all get medallion ones that can be engraved front and back. The big sis has to buy the lavalieres for their littles b/c everyone keeps their own! My family always gets the initials engraved on the back in a certain way.

[dakareng]

I'll admit that this was many moons ago, but my chapter's tradition was to pass on the arrow lavalier to your little. Most of us would then buy our own but at least for that year you wore the one that your family had worn. I know the Greek Letter or medallian lavaliers are more popular today but I still prefer (and still wear) my arrow. Why? It is a more subtle declaration of support and loyalty that is more appropriate for alums and the work environment.

[Lady Pi Phi]

Slight hikack...

I wear my lavalier almost everyday. I only ever take it off when I know I'm going to the bar, or whatnot.
I wear it all the time at work and no one notices. When people do notice they are always asking me what it says. I think because GLO's are not as prevelant in Canada nobody really recognizes my lavalier as greek letter. I think they think it's some sort of funky design.

[PiPhiGirl2005]

It's good to know that the other chapter of Pi Phi are crazy gift givers, too! I have soooo much Pi Phi stuff from my big and my grandbig. Every week, new members have a "secret sister" who leaves a little gift and a note on the new member board for them in addition to their "guardian angel" who spends time with them one day (going out to coffee, having the new member over to the house for lunch, etc.).

For big sis pick-up we go all out. In fact, I am picking up my first little in nine days (not that I'm counting or anything....) and I am SO excited! I already have some ideas of what to get her, but I am always looking for more.

In answer to the family tree question a few posts back, we always make our littles something with their family tree one it, at least a few generations back. My big made me a poster with our tree on it, and I am making my little a pillow with our tree on it, probably only back to her great-grand big because it's not a very large pillow!

At my chapter, we also do disks instead of lavalieres. They are small, round silver or gold disks that you hang on a chain. Your big sis gets it for you sometime after your initiation (I didn't get mine until Christmas the next year, it was a family tradition).... Generally, they have letters on the front and "Pi Phi love, big sis whomever" on the back.

Now I'm just rambling.