Pre-wrapping the stuff is really smart and sounds like a really good way to do it if you can. It would still be hard for us as we have thousands of items and I never have all of my store stuff that far in advance...some if it is being delivered now and next week. It is a good idea though.

We wrapped all but a sample item of everything we had ahead of time. I've had stuff wrapped since the beginning of August. We have everything seperated out, the kids come pick their items, we pick the package and away they go to the cashier, wrapped and ready. Some of our things are wrapped in paper, some are in cellophane and holiday bags. This makes the shopping days much easier on everyone.

Hi! Wrapping the gifts is something I have always wanted to offer to the kids. Ideally my thoughts were to offer it free of charge (you could even factor the paper/tape/tags into the cost of the item if need be). I think it would be awesone that the kids come home with their stuff all wrapped so that Mom and Dad don't have to wrap their stuff for them or help them wrap it.

What has stopped us from actually ever doing it was that logistically I thought it was a nightmare. We always have a good number of volunteers for our store, but it takes a good number of volunteers. I have someone who handles the pricing and writes everyone up a ticket so the cashier can then get them through quickly and I have a person who bags and wraps breakables in paper. I have 1 person who sits and personalizes ornaments for the kids...so that is 4 people right there. The other 8-10 people are helping the kids shop and carry their purchases. Now even if I could secure another two people to wrap and I am sure I could..I figure they would be so backed up. They would not be done wrapping before the next class shows up and then I would needs bins to hold all these gifts to get taken to the classroom as they finished each class. I am worried about confusion and the kids getting back all the stuff they purchased and I just think that I would end up sorry for trying to attempt it.

However...I just had an epiphany...lol...A possible answer may be if the wrapping people go to the classroom right after the class shops and
wraps their stuff right outside the classroom, gives the bags back to the teacher, and then moves on to the next classroom. That certainly could cut down on mixing classrooms merchandise.

Usually the company you go with has small deocrative bags. If you are doing internal crafts to sell you could always make some bags but I wouldn't get into wrapping...tons of extra work, but maybe other folks have had a different experience....d

We are doing our first Holiday Shop this year. For those of you that do these, do you offer to wrap items? Do you charge for the wrapping?
Thanks for the input.