We do a Breakfast with Santa winter festival. We serve pancakes(cooked by the principal), sausage, scrambled eggs, milk, juice and coffee--for a donation. We sell tickets for games at 5 for $1(we get alot of the games donated in by rental type stores--others we paid to have made last year)and we do face painting by the art teacher, our only outside activity is a sleigh ride ( we have a man and wife come in and they bring their horse and sleigh--they never ask for a set amount for payment--but we usually give them $75.00) And of course there is Santa there and you can have your picture taken with him for $3(poloraid picture).
A few years ago we tried bringing vendors in--we charged them $20 for a spot---but we never got many(alot of them are booked up with craft shows during this time of the year) and the ones who came really diden't get alot of business--parents were just too busy with their kids
Good luck and have fun!!
That sounds like fun! Vendors may work for you, but we tried it at our spring carnival & it was a total flop at an otherwise very successful carnival. Some never showed up, some left in the middle of it! Those that stayed did not do very well. We tried to do a crafts sale/marketplace deal & it just did not work. People were so busy w/their kids, I think they just did not have time to visit the tables. It may work for you~admittedly this was not our top priority for the day. My advice~get your money waaay up front. Make it very clear what the event is & don't count on anyone that does not pay you for booth/table rental right away.
We did a voucher for games~giving each student 1 free game & then charged $1 for 6 tickets, each game/activity running from 1-4 tickets. We did pretty well.
Good luck!! Let us know how it works out!
Due to time constraints, our school has decided to have a Winter Festival in Feb. Most likely the activities will be indoors. Wanted to get your thoughts on theme games, charging vendors to have a table, complimentary tot room (parents must be present), and charging $.50/game.