Guest terrydoo73 Posted November 23, 2011 Posted November 23, 2011 We are holding a fundraising coffee and craft evening on Friday week to launch a little recipe booklet produced by the parents and friends of children presently attending our Playgroup. We are a small playgroup - just 11 children and have lots of parent support for this event - baking pastries and cakes as well as sewn things! One of our volunteers has come up with the idea of painting some plant pots, planting them up with a little evergreen type plant and selling these on our stall as being something made by the children themselves. I am looking for another couple of ideas of simple things the children could make to sell. Also I am also starting to think about Christmas presents for our children and we are drawing a blank. I want to buy a painting/crayon/pen case whereas my Deputy is thinking of say a doll for the girls and some sort of car/tractor/digger for the boys but I am not sure if all the girls would appreciate a doll or similar for the boys if they have too many of these already? I know I am being negative but hey ho! We had hoped to spend possibly £5 per child.
Inge Posted November 23, 2011 Posted November 23, 2011 I always feel Christmas presents are always much better if not gender stereotyped.. (dare I say not very PC ) who is to say a boy may not prefer a doll, and and I have known many a girl who would have loved a digger... much better to have one item that can be used or enjoyed by all... we loved to buy a puppet if we had the funds or found one at a reasonable cost, we often gave a finger puppet with a book.. and like you pencil case with pencils and some sort of book to write in .. and must admit to adding a bit of something that makes a lot of noise.. found some lovely noisy tooters one year, lots of parents comment after, but they all took it in the spirit intended! cannot think of another easy item to sell.. but we used to make salt dough decorations which always sold well but they do take time to make and decorate, not an easy one - how about gingerbread men? probably no cooker so not able to do either!
Fredbear Posted November 23, 2011 Posted November 23, 2011 (edited) Hi terrydoo73, hope things have improved and are going well for you now. Could the children make fairy cakes. This week we have made rice crispy raisin christmas puddings, iced them and made holly and berries to put on the top. What about salt dough christmas tree ornaments. Good luck with your fundraiser. We try to look for gifts with a fun but educational twist, so puzzles, games, books, also try to choose something unisex. etc. We spend approx £1.50/£2.00 per main gift, then we personalise a stocking which we fill with pencils,paper pad, reindeer dust, a small chocolate etc. As we have 66 children at the moment this still comes to quite a bit, as well as a entertainer and food for the christmas party. Wishing you well. Edited November 23, 2011 by bridger
Rea Posted November 23, 2011 Posted November 23, 2011 Depending on how much time you've got, I'm about to buy some cotton bags form Clever Baggers. They are about 78p each and we're going to let the children decorate them for the parents to buy at £3.00. How about making christmas cards using sponge painting or finger prints or collage. For presents for the children we usually buy a book but we have bought small ruck sacks and art materials in the past. I think buying dolls for the girls and diggers for the boys is very stereotypical so I wouldnt go that route. Maybe you could ask each parent for an idea or ask each child what they would like Father Christmas to bring them and buy something in that range. Include a letter from Father Christmas saying he knows they really want xxx but the sleigh was a bit too full this time so he's bought them yyy. Pass on anything they say to the parents too, just in case.
lashes2508 Posted November 23, 2011 Posted November 23, 2011 regarding pressies , i agree the tractors/dolls is too sterotypical and a pencil case with stickers and glittery crayons may be better, this year I spotted items in the sale after Christmas which help the budget go further ready for the next Christmas , just as long as you remember where you have stored them !!! Good luck with the fundraising , how about making up bags( cellophane) mixing oats with glitter and sell as reindeer food or gift tags/wrapping paper using brown parcel paper and kids stamp on Christmas theme stamps with paint Good luck with whatever you decide.
Guest terrydoo73 Posted November 23, 2011 Posted November 23, 2011 Thank you once again for all your ideas. I am with you all in terms of stereotypical presents not exactly ideal. I am going by my own daughter at playgroup 7 years ago got a really large pens, pencils etc set which she still has!! I think I might go down the line of salt dough ornaments. We did fairy cakes for our Summer Community Fair which did go down very well as we sold them at 20p and then whatever was left made them into bags of 6.
currycraver Posted November 24, 2011 Posted November 24, 2011 Hi terrydoo73, hope things have improved and are going well for you now.Could the children make fairy cakes. This week we have made rice crispy raisin christmas puddings, iced them and made holly and berries to put on the top. What about salt dough christmas tree ornaments. Good luck with your fundraiser. We try to look for gifts with a fun but educational twist, so puzzles, games, books, also try to choose something unisex. etc. We spend approx £1.50/£2.00 per main gift, then we personalise a stocking which we fill with pencils,paper pad, reindeer dust, a small chocolate etc. As we have 66 children at the moment this still comes to quite a bit, as well as a entertainer and food for the christmas party. Wishing you well. Hi Bridger, your idea for rice crispy christmas puds sounds lovely, could you share the recipe.
SueFinanceManager Posted November 24, 2011 Posted November 24, 2011 There is a nice idea for laminated placemats in this thread; Christmas Crafts!, Ideas for cards calenders and crafty bits
Guest terrydoo73 Posted December 1, 2011 Posted December 1, 2011 Our Coffee and Crafts Evening to launch the recipe booklet parents and friends of children attending our Playgroup have produced will be held tomorrow night. We took the bold step (on advice from parents) to ask for admission fees up front so they all had a certain amount of tickets to sell each and we have raised £200 before the event itself! We have also raised £200 through raffle tickets sold so apart from the home baked and home made stall quite a good fundraiser hopefully. All the parents are baking and a local bakery has given us boxes to sort and put buns into each for selling. There will also be ginger loaves, chocolate cakes etc and I have the task of making the scones to accompany tea and coffee. We have invited a few local craft people to come in and sell their goods just to give a bit of variety and one of our parents has organised for her aunt to demonstrate icing a Christmas Cake. We have a hectic day ahead of us tomorrow in setting out the tables and chairs and organising buns and catering but all the parents are willing to help so that should help the situation a bit! We decided in the end to go with little plant pots painted and glitter added. One of the parents is filling these and putting in plant slips and selling them on our own stall - no names are on the pots so no-one will ever know! I also have a few Hama bead crafts done out and we are selling Christmas pencils with rubbers and another friend of the playgroup has made some handsewn items. Just hoping now people do actually turn up not just pay their fees and that is it!
Fredbear Posted December 1, 2011 Posted December 1, 2011 Hi currycraver sorry for the late reply only just seen your post. Here goes: Rice crispies Melted chocolate on stove, saucepan of water with a glass bowl on top to melt [ this is done by an adult in the kitchen] then we placed the glass bowl into a plastic bowl incase this was still too hot. Spoon full of raisins. Children to spoon in crispies into chocolate and then add raisins and mix. Paper muffin cases Children spoon in the mix into cases. Children then helped to stir the icing sugar with a small amount of water to make quite a firm mixture. Spoon the white icing on and top with, holly made out of green readymade easy roll icing [green] we used a icing punch cutter for this. The children then made berries out of ready made red icing. Have to say they looked wonderful.
HappyMaz Posted December 1, 2011 Posted December 1, 2011 Blimey terrydoo73 my group was a similar size to yours and I don't think I ever did a fundraising event that made £400! You've clearly got a committed bunch of parents! Well done to you and your team!
Fredbear Posted December 2, 2011 Posted December 2, 2011 Fantastic so far Terrydoo73 onwards and upwards.
Guest terrydoo73 Posted December 2, 2011 Posted December 2, 2011 Just back from our fundraiser and it was absolutely hectic!! We raised a total of £1200 which was absolutely brilliant - so many people in the hall too! Unbelievable but all credit to the parents who really pushed it for us.
sunnyday Posted December 3, 2011 Posted December 3, 2011 Just back from our fundraiser and it was absolutely hectic!! We raised a total of £1200 which was absolutely brilliant - so many people in the hall too! Unbelievable but all credit to the parents who really pushed it for us. Woohoo! Fantastic news - well done you!
Cait Posted December 3, 2011 Posted December 3, 2011 Have you considered one of these cake pop maker children can decorate them in all kinds of great ways - on the cover of the brochure this season there are some decorated like rudolph using a pretzel as antlers - very clever!
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