See if there is a warehouse in your area that will allow you to shop there. We have quite a few, so last year myself and the other woman running the Holiday Shop went to one she usually shops at and picked up a bunch of stuff for very little money; we rounded the cost to the nearest quarter since it wasn't intended as a fundraiser, and even though we also had stuff from an actual Holiday Shop co., our stuff sold out while theirs had to be packed up and sent back. TOO much work for the profit involved, which was basically nil.
We did have to pay a $10 fee to join the warehouse and get lower prices, but we could have elected not to pay it and pay slightly higher prices that were still reasonable as their main shoppers are dollar stores. Plus, we are still members for this year if we were going to do it again, but the board voted against it.
Luckily the other woman had a van, which was filled to the gills by the time we left, and we still had to make a second trip.
I think that the holiday shop is the perfect school event for a bargain hunter! Assuming that you live somewhere near a concentration of retail stores, and you start in September, you can fill a holiday shop chock full of the most wonderful gifts for $2.00 or less. As you get closer to your event, you can "fill in the cracks" with Oriental Trading, Dollar Store, etc. This way, the mix of items looks great! Also, Overstock.com is a great source for kids videos ($1), porcelain Xmas Ornaments ($3) as well as other items.
We found LEGO Basketball Sets for .50, Goodnight Moon Board Games for .99, Glass Jars (to fill with candy) for .49, mini ice-cream makers for .50, 4 pc denim scarf/purse sets for .33, bottles of bubbles and large pinwheels for .05; You get the idea. We are also adding Scholastic Books for the first time this year to eliminate some of last year's junky plastic gifts.
I would love to exchange holiday shop "catalogs" with any school that does it by themselves without hiring a company. Contact me via email. My catalog is in Excel format; I also have created shop operation spreadsheets and flyers to share with all that ask.
There is a women in charge of our holiday bazaar that can not deal with change.... our is not a fundraiser but the budget $1400 again the expected income?!?! This year is harder because the economy is bad - and most of our items are donations. I have already spend over $100 dollars but I am totally for Oriental Trading - with a mark up--- I hope that next year I can get my hands on this event!!
We are having our holiday gift shop during school hours. we bought gifts from oriental trading with nothing being over 1.50 cost. we also bought brown and white lunch bags that we are going to use for the wrapping. we are using curling ribbon to decorate the bags with. and then we are letting the children write the to and froms on labels we bought. again this isn't intended to be a money maker. we are intending to put one of each item on the tables with the others in individual boxes under the tables. this way we don't have to have tons of stuff out for little hands to be tempted. the teachers will work out the schedule for their own students to come and pre shop and take home a want list with prices on it, then they can come back on a different day to do the actual shopping. we are going to do the wrapping and then deliver the gifts to the students later that same day. you just put the students gifts in one big bag and then label the big bag for the persons who are wrapping them. this way you don't have to be rushed and the students don't have to wait for the gift wrapping. i will let everyone know how it works out. usually the ptc uses a company, but we went to a open house one of them were having and we weren't impressed with it.
We use a combination of Oriental Trading, local dollar store, and Sams. We sell everything almost at cost (round off to the nearest quarter - either up or down), with the goal of breaking even. We've used companies before but became quite discouraged one year when most of the items would cost the children $2 or more. We usually buy low, see what is selling best and then make a mad dash to the store to supplement. Our school is adopted by a local church and their little ladies are a wonderful assistance. They help with both the shopping and the wrapping. Make sure you send the kids home with a list to complete (with mom and dad's help) of the amount of money they are to spend and on whom. We also serve kids fresh baked cookies (the entire hallway smells like a bake shop) and have Mrs. Clause on hand.
I've never done a Santa Shop, but I use Oriental Trading for all of my party & carnival needs. I really like their craft kits and those are under a dollar each. You could individually wrap them and just copy the instructions...they have many to choose from. They have some neat gift things. Nothing fancy, but something the kids would like. :cool:
