We've done a free santa shop, that we run at our school for the past 7 or 8 years!!
It is soooooo rewarding and great to see the kids shopping for their parents and siblings and not have to pay, especially the ones that can not afford it!! We have around 300 students and allow each student to pick out 4 gifts and we wrap them or give them the bags for them to wrap back in their class.
We are in Brown County, IN, which is a very, very small artist/tourist town. We used to solicit donations from the local shop owners, but there are 3 other schools that would hit them up also, so we've stopped doing that. We have a few shops that call us and donate items, we request donations from our families. We are normally short on men items, so we've in the past allotted our Box Top money to supplement it, but we've switched and we do a selfmade discount card that we sell for $5 to fund the santa shop. We made around $650 on it last year.
It's one of the best things we do all year!!!
Cheree This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Our envelopes say:
Student Name_______________
Teacher___________________
Amount Enclosed:______________


1).___________ 1.25
2.)___________ 2.50
3.)____________3.75
up to 20.
we sell all items at 1.25, checks or money go in the envelope, they can check off the names as they shop (with younger kids we have helpers to write in what they got for uncle bob and aunt susie) and we take out the money and put the envelope in the shopping bags. We made a template one and found a local printer (not kinkos, just a small business in the area) who prints them for us every year..$30/400.

I would love some info. We are first timers too, with a zero!! budget...they disbanded last yeat and left us with nothing....we really need a way to make some money for our kids!

Where do you all get the items you sell for the santa shop? We have a supplier but I'm sure you all have the same problem that the quality stinks. So we want to look into something else.

Any ideas?


CIndy

We do not send home envelopes. We send a flyer, with a list of suggested recipients. We also let the parents know that the kids only have 30 minutes to shop, so to PLEASE limit recipients to immediate family and maybe grandparents if time.

YOu wouldn't believe how many people send in a list of 15 people.. and $5.00.

We ask that the kids bring their money in a ZIP BAG with their name on it. Once they open the envelopes, they often lose loose change or worse yet, paper cash, on the way home!

I would love to have more of your valuable information on the santa shoppe. As I understand we have done this in the past and it has went well. It would be great to have some tips.
Thanks...tjemskelton@yahoo.com