School Christmas Fair - ideas!

[SimplyPut]

DC's school have a meeting on Monday for Christmas fair ideas... I can't think of any .

Help me oh wise mumsnetters... or I may turn to the !

I just came on to start a thread about this topic (although I'm surprised there's not one already somewhere that I haven't found yet!?). I'm wondering if we can share ideas and suppliers?

Specifically today - I'm looking for ideas for Santa's grotto gifts. The budget about £1 a gift BUT we're trying to move away from sweets and we're also trying to be a bit more eco-friendly. Need around 175 gifts - weighted probably towards the 3+ end but with a few for the older children.

I'm heading off to Baker Ross and the Book People but suggestions would be lovely.

Also thinking of some "I've seen Santa" type stickers, partly to promote that he's at the fayre (with actual reindeer no less) - and because kids love a sticker, so I'm on the hunt for some nice ones of those if anyone's seen any one their travels.

What about bulbs and seeds as gifts? Santa could challenge them to grow something.

Flying Tiger for gifts £1 and under.

For activities it depends on age - assuming it's for littles, pin the nose on the reindeer, make your own tree decoration (something like pre-cut shapes with cottonwool, glitter and paint to decorate), write a letter to Santa? If you have space for hand washing you could do handprint Christmas trees (or footprint penguins) again with extra paint and stuff to decorate

I know DCs school use the book people as they average at £1 per book. Definitely well received by all and no unnecessary sweets.

We did juggling balls one year and had some parents who could use them teaching the children.

Some good ideas thanks... please keep them coming. 🎄

Face painting and nails for kids are popular at our Christmas fair. The older classes do the painting so it’s very basic.

A photo booth with some Christmas props might be fun.

All the dc in the school make a Christmas decoration which you can buy (and which shames me into attending each year)

Ours gives free tea/coffee and a mince pie with your entrance fee which I always feel is a waste as I’d buy tea and something nice anyway.

I love the book sale

I despise the toy sale but the dc love it

Our school will collect excess Halloween candy this week and sell it back to the kids on the sweet stall

Throwing a ball to knock down cans can be brilliant. It’s not great when it’s too hard. But if it costs 50p a go and you win a sticker/sweet/ party favour costing 10p max the kids will play over and over like little addicts. Give the option of winning 5 in a row to get a pound shop toy and they’ll be hooked.

Job lot of Christmas tattoos/transfers. Takes no space and is very popular. 50p as they are small

Hair colour spray, henna tattoos, face painting, bouncy castle, guess the amount of sweets in a jar, guess the name of the teddy/unicorn,etc, tombola, bottle stall (our primary used to have a dress down day where your payment was a bottle of anything (could be soft drink/ wine/ toiletries)). It also asked for parental donations of wrapped small gifts for a present lucky dip.

Also bought a big sack of popcorn and sold it off in small portions. Candy floss maker went down well too . Decorate your own biscuit - provide digestive biscuits, icing and sprinkles

The water into wine stall was popular at our Easter Fayre. Basically pay £2 and select a bottle bag it will either be a bottle of wine or a wine bottle filled with water.
Our school requests parents send in old jars and or bags of sweets they then fill the jars. The tickets are sold for £1 each and everyone is a winner.

I used to do basic balloon modelling too- swords, dogs, flowers

Risus Wholesale are good for grotto gifts, they offered pre-wrapped too which is handy.

A big hit for us last year was the jar tombola- children fill a jar with something for the prizes. We had some really creative entries and so many of them that we could make every ticket a winner.

‘Water or Wine’ tombola works too, especially if you ask parents to donate bottles (of anything).

For santa gifts bath bombs were popular at ours last year. We got them in Home Bargain, less than £1 and wrapped them in tissue / cellophane.

Water to wine sounds good. Did you ask for bottle bag donations too?

Bath bombs are so popular right now, a great idea.

A load of old comics and magazines and a badge maker? It'd be so retro now the kids would probably go nuts for it.

We are holding our first Christmas fayre at the end of this month so following for ideas!

We are doing a grotto with books as gifts
A slime stall (bought loads of slime from a toy wholesaler)
Sweet cones
Make a snowman (marshmallows)
Make or take crafts stall
Biscuit decoration
Tea and coffee
A couple of stalls from local businesses
Order a Christmas Eve box
Order a wreath or tree

Why is it acceptable to expect parents to buy their childrens art work?

@bluetrampolines care to expand?

Mulled wine and/or hot chocolate. Borrow slow cookers to do it in so there's very little to do except ladle it out.
Santa keys (so he can get in, in the absence of a chimney) You can buy job lots of keys on Amazon. Tie on a bit of red ribbon and job done!
Personalised baubles. Use metallic pens to write names on in swirly writing.

If the children are little enough (and still in the Believe age) I'd buy a load of 2nd hand ornate keys (eBay) , spray paint them all gold (before the fayre) and get a load of ribbons (you can get cheap off cuts on eBay or rolls for a pound or so) and let them string their own Santa Key .
Maybe a couple of adhesive gems to jazz them up?

I did one as decoration for my DC years ago, we still use it

Ha! Cross post on the Santa Keys (I started typing and my DS called me )

Our DC school did Lollies held in a roll of corrugated cardboard (the stick goes into the tubey bit) some of them had a marker pen spot on the end of the stick- if you got that one you got a prize , if not , you still got a lolly .

A hot chocolate bar could be a good shout!

Loving this thread. Instead of mulled wine, do mulled apple juice. Good for everyone then and no worries about driving. Cheaper too, and just as scrummy.