Our school's winter carnival was run by the teachers in their own rooms. They decided what games they wanted to do (ring toss, musical chairs, face painting, bowling, etc) and the PTO provided the prizes. For $5, a student could buy a small bag (to hold their prizes) with enough tickets to play every game once. The prizes were mostly bought from Oriental Trading and candy was donated. Some parents donated pencils, cups, etc from the companies they worked at. To make a little more money, the PTO sold hot dogs, drinks, and other concessions. Also, for the parents to enjoy the carnival too, we invited vendors to come over and sell things like scrapbook materials, avon, jewelry, crafts, you know, all those things that moms sell on the side.
The money we raised was used to buy supplies from teachers' wish lists for Christmas. (That's how we got all the teachers involved!)