Money making ideas for playgroup stall at Christmas fayre please?

[50ShadesofXmas]

Our parent and toddler group has booked a table at our local village Christmas fayre in November, it's very well attended by old and young and we really, really need some money (to keep it running!) so what are the best money making, fun ideas?

We thought of reindeer food, snowman soup, baking Christmas cupcakes - any ideas really appreciated.

Thank you.

All those are good, but the biggest money made at the local school one is just a second-hand toy stall.

Also mulled wine apple juice?

The best money I ever made was at a school xmas fayre where I cooked a shed load of biscuits/cookies (from an MN recipe!), hung them off a Christmas tree, bought some icing pens, 100s and 1000s, smarties etc and the kids paid £1 to buy and decorate them.

It did cost me to make them and buy the decorations etc, but I handed over £80 to the school AND I was the first stall finished and outa there!

You could split the costs between you, so you wouldn't be too out of pocket.

Lucky dip - we do one at school where parents donate old toys/tat, they get wrapped and put into lucky dip. Kids love it!

Reindeer dust (attracts reindeer?). Bag of mix of porridge oats and glitter, clear bag, shiny ribbon, £1.50 down our way. Always sells out.

Sweet kebabs made a fortune at a recent fundraiser I went to. Just wooden skewers with big but cheap sweets like marshmallows and jelly babies on, put in a cellophane wrapper. £1 a go.

If you are going to bake then buy the ingredients from a wholesalers to keep costs down.

Mini Xmas gift cakes in a celefane bag with a pretty ribbon

At my dc nursery, they got kids to decorate rich tea biscuits with icing & decorations. A bit less outlay then baking your own but the xmas tree idea is a goid one.

Ask your parents from the toddler group to donate good quality used toys and unwanted/unopened gifts. They will make good cheap gifts for someone.

Totally recommend the decorating cookies/gingerbread idea. Is there anyone you know who could make a fairly impressive gingerbread house that could also be used as a raffle prize?

Have a look on Pinterest for ideas.

Lots of foodie suggestions along the lines of reindeer poo with cute packaging. Also hot chocolate packs - hot choc, mini marshmallows, sprinkles etc in a jar or something.

Check out eBay for bulk buying things like candles/cinnamon sticks to tie round them; draw a design with permanent marker on tissue, wrap round a candle and heat it (hair dryer!) until the design transfers onto the candle.

Ikea for little jars if you're near one.

Cheap mugs filled with sweets/hot choc ingredients.

Clear baubles from hobby craft that kids can decorate something to go inside them.

Toy tombola. Ask for donations of cuddly toys etc. each toy has a raffle ticket. A pound a go and everyone wins.
We do pop a cup as well which takes a bit of preparation. Plastic squash cup containing a balloon, a few jelly sweets and a small toy (bouncy ball, stretchy men, whistling lips etc) cover the cup with a tissue paper lid affixed with an elastic band. 50p to buy a cup. You can do different coloured lids for boys and girls or toys suitable for younger or older children. We aim to spend no more than about 15p on the toy.

Packets of snowman soup

christmas.organizedhome.com/crafts/christmas/snowman-soup

www.frugalfamily.co.uk/2011/10/how-to-have-a-frugal-christmas-snowman-soup.html

How much money do you need to make? I did Playgroup fundraising for 2 years and by far the easiest money-maker was having our own coffee morning.

Also did handprint tea towels for the parents to buy.

Check out lottery funding too, and your local council.

Awards for All - that's the one.

I love the little bags of reindeer noses. You get a handful of malteasers and then one red bubble gum ball as rudolphs nose. Like these

Nappy cakes? I know a shed load of people snarl at them but I'm always getting pestered to knock one up for somebody

Loads of ideas, thank you!! We are going mostly sweets, chocolate, snowman soup etc as the WI are baking and our local children's hospice are doing toys so I'm busy looking for the supplies for the sweet kebabs and snowman soup etc!

Some really great suggestions, thank you :-)

Chocolate fountains always go really well and you can charge quite a lot per "go"

I've done loads of school fayres over the years. Quite a few times we spent ages making things that didnt sell. Our best sellers have been hot chocolate, non alchoholic mulled wine and choc fountain. We did choc fountain at the summer one too and had to send for more marshmallows as we sold out!

Ours do "jingle cups" - go to Burger king and they will give you a load of free paper drinks cups - advertising.....

Give one to each parent, ask them to fill them with sweets/little toys/hair stuff etc... wrap in Christmassy paper and label for girl/boy/either...

Then sell them for £2.00 each.

Chocolate tombola works well for us. Get the parents to donate wrapped chocolate, then standard tombola process.

Oh, and agree with Ruby on selling drinks. You can make gorgeous non-alcoholic mulled wine with Bottle Green Spiced Berry cordial.

I'm going to do gingerbread playdough for our Christmas fayre. I will put it in individual steam pudding pots, decorate with either plastic cake deco holly or cut the shape out of red/green playdough. Wrap in xmas.cellophane with nice.ribbon & gift tag saying what it is. It will look like an.individual xmas pudding. How much would you charge.for this? How much.for snowman.soup? Homemade.chutney?

More fab ideas - thank you so much!

We now have a chocolate fountain and we have been advised to make kebabs with shortbread (though how it goes on a skewer I don't know!), marshmallows, fudge and strawberries - I'm not sure on this idea, surely there's an easier way no?

hello