High school homecoming - how much will you spend and who pays for it?

[fly girl]

We were just looking for Homecoming dresses this weekend! She tried some on at Dillard's and she wasn't wowed, but she knows the color she wants. So I did some online searching and found 3 dresses that we are having shipped (free returns too) and the most expensive one was $60. one of them will work. I felt that was reasonable for homecoming. (prom I would go higher as the dress will be full length)

 

[Colleen27]

I have no idea what I'll spend. I'll be the one paying, because I didn't want DD14 looking for a job (that I'd have to drive her to and from) while also adjusting to her first months of high school. I expect we'll buy both tickets for her homecoming and her "date" (her female BFF who goes to a different school) will buy both tickets for the other homecoming, since they're planning on going to both together. Going with friends rather than dates is pretty much the norm in her friend group, and since the girls have friends at both schools, they love the idea of being able to go to both events.

I can't even begin to guess what dress shopping will be like with DD, who changes her look up between something like 50s retro/pin-up, 90s goth/punk throwback, and androgenous TikToker. She loves thrifting and convincing me to make harder-to-find pieces myself, so I doubt it will be expensive, and she's not one to have someone else do her hair or makeup. Around here, most girls don't do that for homecoming anyway - prom is the formal splurge occasion, homecoming is more semi-formal and low-key.

 

[ronandannette]

Do y’all not live in mum country?

I can’t remember what my son spent on clothes for homecoming, but it was nowhere near the $350 he spent on his girlfriend’s mum (I think we spilt the cost).

Please, please do tell me more. I'm stymied trying to puzzle out what he had to pay his date's mother for?

 

[bennifer]

Homecoming was such a non issue when I was in high school 30 years ago that I had no idea it had become a thing until recently! DS27 never mentioned wanting to go, so I assumed it was still the same.

 

[design_mom]

My high school had a carnival for homecoming weekend. There was a dance after the football game but it wasn't very dressy. Boys might wear non-jeans and girls might wear a sweater/skirt or sweater/dress pants. For my kids' high school, it's the only school dance of the year that underclassman can attend -- and only one of two for upperclassmen -- so it's highly anticipated. (Prom is just for juniors and seniors. They don't have dances after football games like my school did.)

My daughter was quite reasonable. I don't think we ever spent more than $50 on the homecoming dress, and we spent less than $100 on her prom dress. I bought dress and shoes (she wore the same shoes multiple years). She did her own hair makeup. I bought tickets and gave her a reasonable budget for dinner till she got her own job. Once she had a job, she said she'd cover tickets/dinner and I took her up on the offer. She only went with a date to senior year dances, but I believe I bought her date's boutonneire. It seemed that flowers for kids going as a single were not a thing. I offered, but she declined.

 

[EilonwyWanderer]

I thought homecoming and prom king/queen were things they only did on TV.

 

[disney castle days]

I only went to my senior homecoming in 2020. My dress was around $60, shoes we may $30. I did my hair and makeup myself. I think most of my friends spent somewhere between $100-$200 in total.

 

[Disneylover99]

Never heard of Homecoming. Had to Google it.

If it was a thing around here, I would buy my daughter a dress and pay for her to go. It’s not the prom, so I wouldn’t pay more than $100 for a dress.

 

[JenBush]

In my area, girls tend to spend $50-$150 on a dress and most do their own hair and makeup. Guys usually wear a pair of dress pants and a dress shirt and they might buy a tie to match the color of their date’s dress.

 

[tvguy]

Not a big thing when I was in school, not a big thing in our town now. $2 student admission to the football game, another $2 admission to the powderpuff game the next night (charity event). I'm not even sure they have a dance, but if so the kids wear something they already have nothing super fancy. Back in my day the homecoming dance was just a regular school dance -- most wore jeans and a t-shirt.

Someone posted on our community Facebook page information on one local High Schools Homecoming. Admission is $8 for students, $10 for everyone else......High School Sports used to be free, but you have a bargain at $2. But they do have a lot more expenses here anyway. We have 9 High Schools and 3 Football Stadiums, so 3 High Schools shared each stadium About 10 years ago they decided it was harming the school spirit by making them share, now the High Schools all have their own stadiums, stadiums they have to pay to maintain. Seems very wasteful to me, for 70 years sharing stadiums worked just fine, and besides, they only got used 3 days a week during football season. Now they get used 1 day a week during football season.

 

[marthachick]

Do y’all not live in mum country?

I can’t remember what my son spent on clothes for homecoming, but it was nowhere near the $350 he spent on his girlfriend’s mum (I think we spilt the cost).

Ummm... $350 for a MUM? What is so special about a mum that it costs $350? Around here, girls would be insulted if they got a mum!

It's interesting to see/read about different customs.

 

[lanejudy]

Someone posted on our community Facebook page information on one local High Schools Homecoming. Admission is $8 for students, $10 for everyone else......High School Sports used to be free, but you have a bargain at $2. But they do have a lot more expenses here anyway. We have 9 High Schools and 3 Football Stadiums, so 3 High Schools shared each stadium About 10 years ago they decided it was harming the school spirit by making them share, now the High Schools all have their own stadiums, stadiums they have to pay to maintain. Seems very wasteful to me, for 70 years sharing stadiums worked just fine, and besides, they only got used 3 days a week during football season. Now they get used 1 day a week during football season.

Most of our high school sports are free admission during regular season; I think only football, basketball and hockey charge admission. We don't have fancy stadiums. Our football field sits inside the track (so double-duty on the field space) with just 1 large set of bleachers; we do have lights for night games (only about half the Division 1 schools in the state have lights). I don't think any schools around here share fields/facilities for football, but some do for ice hockey.

 

[tvguy]

Most of our high school sports are free admission during regular season; I think only football, basketball and hockey charge admission. We don't have fancy stadiums. Our football field sits inside the track (so double-duty on the field space) with just 1 large set of bleachers; we do have lights for night games (only about half the Division 1 schools in the state have lights). I don't think any schools around here share fields/facilities for football, but some do for ice hockey.

All the stadiums here are like that, football/soccer field inside the track. Most have artificial turf, and the track is that special rubberized material, no more dirt tracks.

 

[soccerdad72]

Most of the boys here don’t even wear suits to homecoming just dress pants, tie, and a nice shirt. The girls wear dresses but not prom dresses.

My son wore that for his freshman year homecoming, but we got him a suit sometime last year, so he wore it to homecoming and prom last year (with different ties). We'll probably rent him a tux for this year's prom (he just went with a friend of his as her guest last year) as it's his senior prom.

 

[Mysterian]

I don't recall making a big to-do about Homecoming back in the day. A few years ago, I saw three well-dressed ladies and one guy in a suit at a Whattaburger during Homecoming. So basically kids around here put all the dime into their outfits, but dinner is a value meal.


Parents, take note, if the kids were given money for dinner, they may have spent some of it on drugs or alcohol, and then used whatever remains on fast food. So be aware, and talk to your kids about the dangers of eating fast food.

 

[Dan Murphy]

What are Mums? I only know as a fall flower.

 

[Skippy918]

What are Mums? I only know as a fall flower.

here’s some info. https://abc13.com/homecoming-mum-texas-high-school/2453511/

it’s a thing in texas.
I have a 9th grader this year so I am really unsure what to expect for homecoming. There’s a pep rally in a few weeks and they mentioned something with the homecoming couple.
I don’t even know if my son will go to the dance as it’s not his thing.

 

[Dan Murphy]

here’s some info. https://abc13.com/homecoming-mum-texas-high-school/2453511/

it’s a thing in texas.
I have a 9th grader this year so I am really unsure what to expect for homecoming. There’s a pep rally in a few weeks and they mentioned something with the homecoming couple.
I don’t even know if my son will go to the dance as it’s not his thing.

Wow! Thanks for the link. Yeah, never heard of that.

 

[mamamary]

My ds never did homecoming dances but my dd did. I guess I paid for her dress, shoes, tickets, her dates boutonnière? We didn’t spend a ton on dresses. I remember my sister gave her a dress one year and the other years it was either jc penney or Macys. Prom was the expensive dance.

 

[NotUrsula]

I went to High School in South Louisiana; we had a fair number of transfers who would move in from Texas, and so we heard about the "mum" tradition. It's really an only-in-Texas thing, thankfully. (We had mums at Homecoming, all right, mostly because our school color was orange: but I'm talking actual crysanthemums, with little football charms attached in the middle in the form of a corsage. They were maybe 3 inches across, and they were worn by the girls on the Homecoming Court. Homecoming dances *were* a pretty major occasion, but the game was a bigger deal; getting elected to the Court and dressing for that mattered more.) This photo is recent, from one of the private high schools in New Orleans (I don't know any of the people in it, but the look isn't all that far off from what I recall girls wearing over 30 years ago. The suits are a tradition for the Courts. It comes from a common tradition in the South; dressing up to go to college football games.)

I now live in the lower midwest. Schools around here have Homecoming Dances, and for most they are the second-fanciest dance of the year, but it's a long-drop from prom. Girls usually wear nicer street-length dresses and the boys *might* wear a tie, but most of the time that's as fancy as it gets. They usually don't even bother to go out to dinner, just hang out at someone's house afterward and order pizza or Chinese food.