Christmas Fair - Suggestions Please

[babymommy]

Hi

This is the 1st time I am getting involved in a PTA event. So, I was wondering what people thought were good/fun things about their own Christmas Fair.

I need to organise a stall for our class and want like something nice that will get people to spend money.

The last 2 Christmas Fairs at our school have been disappointing and even though I didn't go, DH and DS thought they were 'pants'.

Please send me your ideas
Thanks

We have just had an Autumn Fayre.
The things that worked well were:

• Fire engine, police (and we had paramedic there too though only because she is based at fire station and they brought her along!)
• Local craft stalls - ask parents who they know
• Refreshments - send out a paper plate before event and ask parents to fill it
• Hotdogs easier than burgers
• All children's games at 20p
• Adopt a teddy stall (collect donated teddies, print off 'birth certificates', tape a raffle ticket to each one and put other ticket in a box. Children pay 50p, £1, £1.50 (depends on affluence of area!), get ticket, get teddy ticket relates to. Makes lots, kids love it and parents love getting rid of soft toys!
• Kids Tombola - big board with numbers on, small prize on each number. Pillow case of numbered pingpong balls (and a few blank ones). Pull out ball and if has number on then win that prize. First time we have done it and it was a BIG hit
• Coin drop - large bucket with painted circle on bottom and beer bottle top in middle, filled with water. Have to try and get 20p coin onto bottle top. If get it in painted circle win lolly (or something little), if get it on bottle top win £5 - virtually impossible but people love it :)

Does that help?

Don't do Weight of Cake or Sweets in Jar - no-one was interested!

This is just a stream of consciousness so please bear with me! Things that we have done in the past:
-tombola, ending in 5 or 0,
-bottle tombola ( over 18s only),
-bran tub,
-donut suspended on a string thing... children only allowed to use mouths... this always makes loads at our xmas fair.
-Red and green stall tombola - all donations have to be red and/or green or wrapped in red or green paper.
-Jamjar/fill a jar stall always works well with ours - jars on a stall can contain anything - sweets, cookie mix, small toys, pencils etc - obviously a lot is reliant on donations.
-Craft stall where children make something
-secret santa (gifts for parents) usually in a side room or behind a curtain - need a range of presents eg.50p-£5 and children choose depending on how much they have to spend - we always enlist the help of a couple of teachers to help wrap in secret.
-Face painting/temporary tatoos always popular.
-Bulb planting? 1 bulb in planted in a pot of compost ( children decorate pot with stickers?
-cupcakes/cake sale (cupcakes 25p, large cakes £2) made loads last time
-Fruit salad game - need 3 volunteers with baskets of fruit in front of them and they put their hands in and chose a fruit, bit like an arcade fruit machine - winners get to keep a fruit and go in a draw for a large hamper of fruit
-treasure hunt - i.e. lollies stuck in sand or through holes in a board, only win if the end of the stick has a red tip ( or similar ) have also done with eggs - turned over so you can only see the shell - most broken shells - prize for finding the whole egg

Will try and think of more!

We had a sand art stall...the materials were provided by a company who basically give the school all the bottles and sand etc...then the school keeps ten percent of the profits...or you can by your own stuff...they were VERY popular...the bottles come in heart shapes or santas and snowmen etc. You fill them with colored sand in layers....kids loved it.

Will get you a link.

www.sandlady.co.uk/ here it is...

oooh...its actually 25% that the school gets...and that is with no outlay at all. Very good really.

HI

Thank you for all your suggestions. There are a few I will put to the rest of the PTA.

ForMashGetSmash - The sand bottles look interesting. I'm sure my kids alone will most probably provide most of the sales. Please could you get me a little more info about how it worked at your school? eg. did the kids or PTA fill the bottles etc?

Thanks again
babymommy

I was on the PTA last year and came up with "help santa deliver his presents" game. Painted a box red and painted black lines to look like bricks and put cotton wool around the top for snow. Wrapped three presents (used squashy kiddie toys for safety) and each child paid 20p and depending on their age stood a little way or quite near (if age 2 or 3 etc) and if they got all 3 presents in the Chimney they won a prize - large sweet and if they got one or even none in they got a smaller sweet just for having a go. Was so popular the mum on the PTA has asked to use it this year too.

For the summer fair our stall was called the "human fruit machine" and again i covered 3 boxes with silver foil and stuck pictures of fruit on them and 3 mums/dads/kids sat on chairs each holding a box which contained 4 fruits and after a count of 3 we would ecah pull out simultaneously a piece of fruit and if all 3 matched the child won a prize or a sweet for trying. These prizes were bigger and better as it is not so easy to win.

Anyway theres two more ideas to cloud your brain lol

lucky dip ar £1 each with good presents is always really popular and secret santa.

Another fun one (depending on the age of the children in the class) is a human fruit machine. You have three children on chairs next to each other, blindfolded, and holding a black bag with each with an orange, an apple, a banana, and a kiwi (for example). The punter pays to have a go on the fruit machine and pulls the handle by ringing a bell, or some other signal to the blindfolded children who then pull out one piece of fruit each. You can decide on prizes for winning lines and/or two out of three etc. There's no chance of favouritism to friends etc because being blindfolded they have no idea what fruit the others are pulling out so can't control matching up.
It also means that you can rotate the children so they don't get bored, and anyone who doesn't want to be blindfolded can be rostered to take the money.

The kids do it OP....they buy a bottle...which are variously priced...then they go around the stall taking a scoop from each colour of sand with a little scoop...and they pour it into their bottle in thin layers....so they get a nice striped effect. When it is full, the stall holder takes it and stoppers it having first put a tiny drop of water in whic helps the sand to sit still in it's pattern of stripes.

We had the stall made up of 4 tables...in a shape which allowed the holder to stand marooned in the middle....then the kids could go around in a queue ...working their way along the big bags of sand...at the end they hnd their bottleto be corked.

They loved it...but it takes a patient stall holder to manage...you need to supervise a lot to stop the little ones from scooping a pound of sand in one go and filling all their bottle up or making a mess. 2 stall-holders would be best really.

here

Haha vanillacandle and i had the same thoughts! Our boxes were alot more visual and the end person lifted their arm and the child pulled it down as we all lifted out a piece of fruit. Again it was a hit and will prob be asked for again.