Ideas please

froggeroz

Hi there,

Wonder if I can pick your brains for ideas please. I have recently been given the position of chairperson for our preschool. I am trying to sort the xmas fayre now and would like ideas on what we can do to brighten it up a bit. We are doing a grotto, cake sall, 4/5 outside traders, a tea/coffee/bacon rolls stall, Raffle, tombola, face painting.
What games could we do? I have a few bit from last years fayre but tbh most of the bits and bobs look tired and worn, I really would like to give it all a new lease of life.
Links to sites etc would be great.
Thanks in advance
Kate

joolscrouch

We had 'ice a biscuit' at our summer fayre which was really popular - just need some home made or shop bought biscuits, bowls of icing and toppings. Also you could have a 2nd hand books or clothes stall with items donated by parents. We also did keyring keepsakes with the face painting - you need a digital camera, little photo printer and paper cutter along with the keyring blanks but it was a real hit.

TraceyB_2

My SIL manned a 'decorate a gingerbread Christmas Tree/Snowman' last year with shop bought gingerbread trees and men, dolly mixtures, icing pens etc and she sad this was very popular, cheap to set up and fun to do.

At my DDs nursery in the summer, one of the dads dressed up as Spiderman and the kids had their pictures took with him for £1, they were then printed off on a digital camera (the same happened at the Christmas Grotto - you paid extra for a picture with the main man!).

There was also a 'stick you name on a pound' bucket where people were given a sticker to write their name onto, this was then put in a bucket with all the other pound coins. When one was pulled out - the winner got a cash sum (cant remember how much!) - you could do it as a % of the takings?

The ladies from the nursery also approached local businesses (beauty parlour, off liceneces, restaurants etc) and got them to donate prizes for the raffle and the companies who donated were then advertised in a little A4 flyer we all got on the way in.

Good luck -will keep an eye on this for some ideas for our Christmas one!

Savvy_Sue

This one takes a little organisation, BUT

1. you buy some cheapy cheap gifts for adults, the kind you could 'sell on' for 50p or £1 tops (you know how large families are in your schools and what incomes are like!)

2. you buy some cheap wrapping paper and gift tags, and sellotape.

3. you set up 'surprise presents' gift wrapping in a separate classroom.

4. children pay whatever you've decided, go to this classroom and choose a present for mum, dad, granny etc, wrap it, label it and take it home.

And that way, mum actually gets a surprise on Christmas Day. Not even dad knows what the children have chosen (and he certainly hasn't had to ask mum what she wants).

We used tea light holders, 'proper' hankies, photo frames, the key rings suggested somewhere else would work, nice looking biros, note pads, small soaps etc.

You need to think about who you have running this stall: while you can have just about anyone selling raffle tickets and running other stalls, I suggest you need at least two very trusted adults for this: one is AT ALL TIMES present in the classroom, and the other is escorting children to and from the classroom from the main event. And you set some guidelines, if Johnny needs an emergency wee he gets taken back to mum pronto and NOT to the toilet by a random adult. Even if that means he wets his pants ...

moo2moo

Craft stall making things on the day - Baker Ross have a 1/2 price sale on at the mo. with lots of X-mas stuff ...also a huge range of scratch art which is cheap, quick and easy.

Reindeer food. Oats and glitter in a bag with a poem about sprinkling it. Lots to downlad on 'tinternet.

Cake stall.

Face painting.

Pick a stick / lolly. Shoe box with holes for the lollys does the trick. Paint the bottom of a few sticks with nail varnish for extra prizes.

Raffles go down well, esp. if you can sell tickets before hand.

Balloons, especially the giant bouncy kind (even better with rice inside) - Baker Ross.

X-mas fake tatoos (Baker Ross again - are you seeing a theme yet?)

Decorated plant pots and planted bulbs. We've done this by pre-order to guarantee numbers and so that pots are painted and dry before hand.

Whole school tea towel. Countryside Art are fab. If you're super quick (and totally insane) you can do one in a week plus 2 weeks for printing so you could have them by the middle of November.

Tombolla. Make a grid with no.s in multiples of 5 or 10, place prizes on the grid. Find a bucket, make a cloth cover over the top with a hand slit. Save 100 milk bottle tops (from plastic bottles) and number 1 -100. Saves sticking raffle tickets on things and the odds don't change and you can keep adding prizes all through the event.

Santa goes down superbly. The Book People have some great offers on at the mo. with sticker books working out at 61p each (rrp £3.99).

Roll a 2p makes pocket money go further.

Jane2112

We have had great success with a soft toy tombola. Ask for donations of clean toys and use the grid system as mentioned above it is easier than sticking the lables on. Always have the 'reserves' on show - that way people will come back to have another go!

With older children and adults - a chocolate tombola is always the first to clear out!! Again ask for donations.

A chocolate fountain did well, with prepared fruit, sweets on sticks and they charged 50p a dip. Other well worn ideas include - name the bear/duck/dog etc, a treasure map on a grid - where is the treasure, bran tub. £1 pound in a bucket of water then try to cover it completely with a 10p - near on impossible!

Lots of ideas on t'internet.

Good luck