Fundraising ideas - christmas fair

Lopsie

hello,

I am a trustee on a new charity set up to run a village community centre. We are raising funds to refurbish the centre and are planning a Christmas fair.

I am in charge of getting the ball rolling and need some ideas to make money, and some ideas on activities for kids (as cheap and cheerful as possible!).

We are inviting many craft sellers etc to have a stall and will have the usual cakes and teas, raffle etc. We will hopefully be having santa visit too. Any ideas on cheap arts and crafts ideas for kids?

We were also thinking of selling our own homemade bits like magic reindeer food, snowman poop, reindeers noses - any other ideas?!

We're also hoping to have a photo shoot for children in a Christmas scene with an instant photo printout for them to take home.

Its our first Christmas event and were not really sure of what else we can do relatively cheaply! Any ideas you have would be great, thanks in advance! Or if you were to take your children to a Christmas event - what would you be expecting?!

xx

susan42

Check this out for cheap things to make

www.christmascraft.co

I think lucky dips seem to be the most popular thing.

Also collect wine bottles up , empty ones. Then get some full ones donated . Wrap them all in Xmas paper and charge a £1 a go to try to find them. Usually a good money spinner and usually sells out. Especially if you can get people / shops to donate a bottle

DigForVictory

Bottle & chocolate tombola. Steady earners every year for us at our school. Community might be trickier, but yes, as long as you can take a "no" over the phone, ring *every* shop in the area.

If you think the "photo while you're here" idea will run, get frames that will take a bit of decoration (IKEA, for example) & sell at a markup. We encourage our Early Years artists to decorate a frame each - they haul Mum over to buy it & if you offer a while-you-wait photo to go in it service? Possibly even with giftwrap & padded envelope for prompt shipping to grandparent?

If you can source old jamjars, have a paint your own votive light stall?

If they even have lids, then sell "cookie kits" (layered ingredients, instuctions on label, "trim" with a wooden spoon &/or a festive cutter)?

Or stock up on Haribo by the docking great tub (Makro, Costco) & do a Pick Your Own where you scoop as they point... (What happens to the sweeties After The Fundraiser is between you & your conscience.)

Whatever you stock up on, be ready to give to your own family in case it all goes crunch. Easy acid test for "can we make these go?" is would I give this to my neighbour?...

Also, if you can, take a tray of items around the stallholders, who are a literally captive market. Some will be charmed you thought of them as anything other than cash at the gate.

kingfisherblue

Smyth's Toys donated a large monkey to our brownie unit a couple of years ago (retail price was around £10). We had a map and 'sold' each country for 50p. Beforehand, I asked my mum's friend to choose a country and write it down, fold the paper so it couldn't be seen, and seal in an envelope. We then made a banner 'Where in the World does marvyn the Monkey Live?'. It was very popular.

Along similar lines, Guess the Weight of the Cake, Guess the Doll's Name, Guess How Many Sweets in the Jar. Ask local businesses for donations where possible.

Face painting usually raises a good amount.

Children's tattoos are also popular, although personally I can't stand them. Baker Ross sell them quite cheaply.

Make sure there is somewhere for people to sit and buy a cuppa and a biscuit.

Hook a Duck - available from Baker Ross, small outlay but can be used in future fundraisers

Play Your Cards Right - available from Baker Ross, small outlay but can be used in future fundraisers

Paint your own mug - buy cheap mugs (or ask supermarket to donate) and use porcelain pens to decorate. Give printed instructions about baking in oven when customer gets home.

Hair pins/bag charms/keyrings - beaded decorations. You can either make some up beforehand to sell, or have a table where kids can make their own.

Rudolph candy canes - add googly eyes, sparkly pipe cleaner antlers, and bow around neck. Cost is about 18p, but you can sell for 50p-£1. To save money on thin ribbon, cut out the hanging ribbons from clothing.

Buy a date - people buy a date from a calendar. Ask an independent person beforehand to choose the winning date and seal it in an envelope, to be drawn at the end of the fair. Give a prize to the winner (maybe ask a supermarket or local shops to donate items for a hamper?)

teacherandmum

I love Christmas muffin mix in jars, just work out home much they cost to fill and then mark up at a profit
http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/2920/christmas-muffin-mix

Miss_Spud

How about a game of "Pin the red nose on Rudolf" or a carrot nose on a Snowman, etc. to keep the kids busy.

goingsenile

Our school PTA had our first Christmas fayre last year which although stressful was a great success
We don't have a lot of space (new build school) so therefore were not able to do any craft items for the kids.
We had about 10 local craft stall and then a stall for the PTA itself on which we sold snowman soup, small bags of gold ( small gold organza bag, gold lind teddy, gold coins, wethers sweetie), reindeer dust, snowman poop, reindeer poop, mini knitted stockings filled with chocolate. We also had a guess the weight of the cake, dolly's name, ipod raffle.
Our bottle stall and tombola were also very successful plus teas and coffees. Also had Santa's grotto (coloring books from Baaker Ross as gidt) and glitter tattoos
One thing we had which worked really well and was sold out within the first 30 mins was these balloons from Baker Ross http://www.bakerross.co.uk/christmas-punching-balloons

Hope some of these ideas help, I'm going to watch this thread with interest too!
AJj

bethl79

Hand prints on canvas have been a winner for us - lots of parents got their kids to do them as Christmas presents for grandparents. You can get small canvases for around £1 each and acrylic paint for around £1 a large tube, we then sold them for £2.50. Fairly easy for a good profit.

Ditto bauble decorating. Buy plain baubles (for around £1 - £2 a pack of 12 usually) and glitter deco pens from baker ross/yellow moon (about £8 a pack I think). Let the kids draw a design on the bauble and sell for £1.

Cake decorating is another easy profit maker, just need some plain fairy cakes and bowls of coloured icing and sprinkles etc.

Stitch_3

Silly question but....

When you do the tickets for the tombola and the prize tickets end in 5 or 0; do you add both the non winning tickets to the bucket or just 1?

whitewing

1 goes on the bottle and 1 in the tub.

VintageBelle

Stitch wrote: »

Silly question but....

When you do the tickets for the tombola and the prize tickets end in 5 or 0; do you add both the non winning tickets to the bucket or just 1?

It doesn't really matter, but I'd just add the one to give people a bigger chance of picking out a winning ticket.



I was at a fair yesterday and they had a big cake table where members of the church had made a variety of treats but the ones I found cutest were little marshmallows and each one was in a petite four case and had a smartie stuck on top with chocolate and they were selling about 6 in a bag for £1.

Could you also set up a card making table for the children or make your crackers and ask people to save their toilet roll tubes?