I recommend Fun Services Santa's Secret Shop/Holiday Gift Shop. WE have used them for the last 7 years, and love working with them. The staff is super friendly and always willing to answer any questions you have. I don't have any problems with broken merchandise and if a child breaks their merchandise after the fact they replace it at no cost. They have new merchandise every year, so you don't have to worry about getting the same stuff all the time. We love them.
There is a great santa shop for elementary school called Frosty's Wonderland. All items are priced from .05-$5.00. Comes complete with bags for wrapping, all table tents and set up supplies. Generally runs for three-five days. The kids and parents alike really love it. the inventory comes listed and fluctuates by school population. When you finish, reinventory and send a check less your profit for the inventory used. Some scholarship money is available to some schools as well. Email at Woodall Fundraising fundraisingwfr@cs.com
I used All American Childrens Gift Shop this year I thought it was great. They offer insentives ,free gifts. the kids got free wrapping paper. their phone number is
800-683-8358
We've used Fun Services for our Santa Shop for about 8 years. One year we decided to go with another company, and later got a bill for sales tax. Ended up losing money that year. Went back to Fun Services, and never had a problem. The gifts are new every year. They post their brochure on www.funservices.com
Won't ever think of changing again.
We've done a combination of the two. The companies and the local stuff. The companies offer lots of extras like promotional stuff that we'd have to do ourselves. But I agree that some of the best stuff was donated from local people or stores.
Hi there, I found this thread to be extrememly interesting as I have chaired the Santa Shop at our two sister schools for the past three years. We used compnaies in the past, but found that we could go to our local dollar stores and other merchants would donate items...we would then set all the items up by catergory ranging from mom,dad, c'mas, brother, sister, etc. All items sell for $1.50. We made sure that all items, or most, were purchased for around $1.00 so that we mad somewhat of a profit. The profit that we made then was used to supply "baskets" around the holiday time to needy school families(our schools). This is great! I have arranged volunteers to help set up and run. I am sure the companies are "less" hassle, but the reward of doing this way is great also. It makes everything seem worthwhile. Just my opinion though
