Christmas fair ideas

furrypig

We ask for decorated 'jolly jars' which are jam jars with small toys and sweets in and everyone is a winner as they are all numbered and you pay 50p and get to take a ticket out. Last 2 fairs we have had over 200 jars so £100 profit straight away.
Each class makes a Christmas hamper with everyone bringing in a different item ie chocs, wine, Chrimbo pud etc etc.
We do a wine and water stall where most of the bottles are filled with water with a few real bottle in there and all covered with an upturned paper cup. You pay a £1 and get 3 guesses and win the bottle if you guess correctly.
We do a present stall where any donations people have brought in can be bought and wrapped so the children only spend a small amount of money but take home a wrapped pressie.
We do a bottle tombola, the day before the fair the kids are allowed to wear mufti if they bring in a bottle usually wine/beer/alcohol/or even bubble bath!
We always do cakes, Santas grotto, raffle and hamper raffle,not usually outsiders stalls as not much room as only a small infant school, kids tombola (new and nearly new toys) sweet stalls and a few others I can't remember. Lots of organising and hard work but really worth it as we have good fun and usually raise £1500 plus!

Good luck!

melancholly

i make crafty things and going to school christmas fairs is always a really good way to sell things. you can sell tables to people for £20 - £30 and then you get the guarenteed income with no outlay, and you get a big variety of stalls which keeps all the visitors happy.

it's also pretty common to charge a nominal entrance fee - say 50p or something - it might not make a fortune but it all helps!

shade_mes

I definitely second the tombola and cake stall, any fair I've helped in always found that those got the best custom.

The best seller at the cake stall was really cheap and simple but kids and adults loved to buy them. It was a marshmallow with melted chocolate on the base (so it stuck to the mini cupcake case) and melted chocolate on top with a smartie or other sweetie stuck on top. May not sound much but they sold out really quickly every time.

Festive themed items always sell well so anything you can make up to be festive or Christmas like is a bonus. Try getting those little cheap stockings that hang on Christmas trees and putting in sweets, lollypops etc. We even used to do pet ones by putting in chewy bones (can buy cheap at pound store) for dogs and little toy mice or treats for cats.

For santa gifts I'd look in bargin stores, markets, end of line items, basically anything that is marked sale is always a good bet.

jlw_3

I suggested this when my daughter was in infants and it seemed to go down well. A stall where children could write a letter to Santa and then receive a reply either via the school or in the post. You would need someone with a computer to print the replies but often parents who can't get to PTA meetings are quite eager to help out in other ways and donate time/supplies.

honey28

Our school do face painting/tattoos and the queues here are always the longest. I love the cookie decoarting one though.

trayci

I would very strongly recomend a chocolate fountain. The outlay will be around £25 but this can be used for all functions the school may do. We purchased on for the summer fair and it went down a storm. Along with making a nice profit! Considering we do not give sweet foods in schools any more this seemed a real treat.

Elljay_2

Also on the chocolate theme, I went to a school fete and by far the most popular stall was the chocolate tombola. The organisers asked for chocolate donations ranging from choc lollies to boxes of chocs and they sold out really quickly. Not bad considering all the prizes were donations. I don't think it is asking too much of parents to donate a bottle and some chocolate, a prize for each tombola. As a guest I also head for the cake tables!!!
You could also sell squash and "non alcoholic" cocktails. You could make these cheaply and sell them for 15-20p per cup.

Poppy9

We used to do a M&S hamper as a raffle prize and one as an auction item. Ask for donations from M&S and then put into a basket or decorated box and wrap with cellophane. Put a note in the basket asking them to return it for summer fete if they have no use for it.

Top stalls were:

Bottle stall. Have a non uniform day and ask the children to bring a bottle. Most will bring wine but bottles of sauce, shampoo etc are good. Charge £1 ticket with every ticket a winner. Buy some cheap bottles of pop or water to pad out the stall if necessary. We always made £300+ from this stall.

Face painting, tattoos and hair braiding. Huge queue and usually made about £100

Tombola. Usually made £200

Ask for nearly new cuddly toys. We nearly always got some brand new ones (and some not fit for the dog to play with). If we had big brand new ones we would add to childrens hamper for raffle prize or we would have name the bear. With used cuddly toys we washed and wrapped in cellophane. We then numbered them with every ticket a winner for £1. Usually made £200+

Ask someone to bake and decorate a cake for guess the weight

Get some empty clear glass jars and ping pong balls. Put £5 in one of the smallest neck jars and sweets in others and you have to try and throw ball into jars. You win the contents of the jar.

Lollipop lotto. You can buy or make a board. Put 100's of lolly's in and put a blue mark on the bottom of some of them. If they pick a blue one they win a prize else they just keep the lollipop.]

Hot food. The cook in the school would prepare a chilli, curry and jacket potatoes for us and we would serve them up with Tea and coffee and mince pies.

Book & DVD stall. Ask for donations

Auction. If you have parents with business or connections you can often get football or theatre tickets donated. Signed footballs/rugby balls always go down well. Or ask some local restaurants for a meal for 2. Worth contacting your local theatres to ask for panto tickets.

Treasure hunt - sell the squares

Glow bracelets/necklaces. These also go well at school discos.

Talking of Discos. We used to combine the Xmas school dinner day with an afternoon Disco for the kids. Charge £1 and give them a drink and small bag of Haribos. Disco used to cost us about £60 through a supporter of the school.

smileysaver

Refreshment stall? I'm sure the parents will always have a cup of tea/coffee, and some cordial for the kids?
Guess how many sweets are in a jar They don't have to be expensive sweets.

Generally ask parents for donations - they will usually only be too happy to help the school out. It's also quite handy if you know any of the parents run businesses- our school had a couple of parents who ran a chemist, so they donated perfume, and in return got advertisement. You might like to ask local businesses too.

Princess_Cinderella_2

when i was at school (a few years ago now :eek: ) each class at school was asked to run a stall. they decided on the theme we hand stalls selling friendship bracelets, home made crackers which always went well as all you need is loo roll insides and some old wrapping paper then cheap prizes inside, homemade decorations using salt dough either the decorations can be made in advance or by children on day. we also got lots of things from local traders we had a programme which was full of advertiseing and we sold space in these to other traders. we had a balloon race as well where sold balloons for £5 each and the balloon that went the furthest won £50 party shops can often do a good deal on the gas and the balloons if bought together always a good seller. we also had competitions that the adults could enter such as general knowledge quiz or a bin bag fashion show - you pay to enter a team then you are given 2 black bin bags 2 white bags 2 green bags and another clour bag some cellortape and scissors and then had 15 mins to make an outfit. this was always popular and we had a few bottles of wine as the prize:T .