I finally remembered my password. LOL
Thank you for your help. We are using a list of items that we had from last yr to get comparable things. But we are also getting items that we are finding at 50% off for a few nicer items.
It is pretty exciting as we just went shopping the other day and got only half of what we needed. So we get to go shopping again. We have also decided to get brown bags and stamp with Christmas stamps and TO and From then the kids can punch holes in the top and thread ribbon through the holes and tie them. Simply and easy.
Now to come up with a cute name.

We have the lists of what was sent to us by our previous santa shop wholesaler and we just buy things that are comparble and the count we sold. We purchase more for the more popular items.
Otherwise I would just suggest buying a few dozen different things for moms, dads, grandparents, brothers, sisters, (younger and older ones) and then some generic items like ornaments, mugs, bath items, jewelry, etc.
We pretty much pick alot of the same items that the santa shop stores sell we just purchase them from the $1.00 store and eliminate the middle man and the mark up.


Cindy

This is our second yr to do a Christmas Shop and we decided to do our own shopping. Our committee decided we could get a little better quality for less money. We have 350 students in our school. Last yr using a company we sold about 1200 items and we only had 250 students. I was really needing some helping in deciding how many items to buy. We get to start shopping tomorrow. Was thinking last night, where in the world am I going to store every thing. LOL Looking for someones garage. Wish I had one. LOL. Using a company, there were quite a few items(the nicer ones) that we only got 6 of and the kids were disappointed after viewing the items and then when it was time to shop with their class.. The item was already gone and we couldn't get anymore. Some kids were coming in with $40 to spend.
Any and ALL suggestions are appreciated.