FUNDRAISING – Christmas fair
Louisa Quy: ‘We served up turkey and cranberry rolls, using pre- cooked and sliced turkey crowns on food warmers – we charged £2. We also did hot chocolate, which we kept warm in slow cookers and served with a marshmallow and cream – this sold out at £1 a cup.’ Jessica Matthews: ‘We don’t do the catering ourselves anymore. We used to do a barbeque, but it took four volunteers to run and only the hassle of cleaning it afterwards. I now tender out the pitch. Last year a company did pulled-pork rolls. He paid us £125 for the pitch, plus I have four volunteers to use elsewhere! I worked with the vendor to agree fair prices for parents.’ Tracey Morgan-Willcox: ‘We have a barbeque selling sausages and burgers and also pulled-pork rolls always sell out – particularly quick to go are the pork and turkey rolls. The barbeque is our biggest earner.’
Have you had success with any craft activities? Joanne McKee: ‘The children made felt Christmas trees, which they decorated with different coloured sequins for the lights. They then took them home and hung them on their trees. We charged £1 each and it was very popular.’ Mel Tucker: ‘Cupcake decorating – 50p a go and the kids love it! Ask parents to bake batches of plain cupcakes or donate sweets and decorations. Sticky but fun!’ Gemma Wilson: ‘Decorating paper bags to put their prizes into.’ Helen Mercer: ‘Sand art, colouring festive bookmarks (which are cheap and good for littlies), decorating biscuits, which we ask the school cook to make. We tried decorating plastic baubles but the pens didn’t dry well. You could try the two-piece baubles and get children to put a selection of penny sweets inside.’ Emma Laughton: ‘We used to do things like sand art and decorating
baubles but it became so busy and took too long, so this year we’ve decided to do a KS1 and KS2 craft night, charging £2.50 – children spend an hour doing crafts to take home and have a biscuit and juice.’ Sarah Ward: ‘Buy wooden shapes such as stars and Christmas trees from
woodshapes.co.uk. Pre-paint them and thread ribbon through (the company will pre-cut a hole for you), then get the children to write a message on them for their tree. The painting took time and effort but we Alison Haynes: ‘We had great success at last year’s fair with plate decorating – we bought plates from Wilko and used Sharpie pens. We also had some stencils for children to use, although some drew their own designs. We had a choice of plain plates or ones with “Merry Christmas” already written around the rim. We sold out!’
What is your most profi table stall or attraction? Caron Johnston:
RSPCA advice on ‘reindeer food’
Planning to sell bags of ‘reindeer food’ at your fair? Think again! With birds and other wildlife falling foul of this festive fundraiser after eating oats and glitter sprinkled outside for Rudolph, the RSPCA suggests that even using ‘edible’ glitter in your oaty mix is a no-no: ‘Certain foods that are harmless to humans may cause serious digestive problems if accidentally eaten by animals, or could even be fatal if toxic to that species. Glitter is not intended for consumption and even if a product is certifi ed by the FSA as being safe for humans to eat, e.g. edible glitter, this does not mean it is safe for animals to eat. We would advise against this activity to prevent accidental ingestion by animals.’ How about selling bags of reindeer or snowman poo (chocolate raisins or mini marshmallows) instead? See
pta.co.uk for guidance.
stall is our bidding wall which raised a whopping £967.07! We received help from parishioners, as well as donations of prizes from parents’ employers and businesses, including hotels, restaurants and shops. We also wrote to about 50 companies asking for donations, and received tickets to theme parks, local attractions, etc.’ Karen McClure: ‘Crazy Cups. Each child is given a plastic pint glass to sort then bring back to school! We then sell them at £1 each. Our only stipulation is no unwrapped sweets. We generally get about 100-150 returned and they have usually all sold within half an hour.’ Jenny Hollies: ‘Chocolate tombola is a great earner for us. The children have a dress-down day before the
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