Shopping:
Check what is left in the PTA closets on the stage… 2007 we (roughly)
inventoried on the price sheets for you. I shopped at Oriental Trading,
Michael’s, Home Depot, Dollar Store and Christmas Tree Shop. Jerrick
Drugs is also a good place to shop, but I didn’t get there. Limit
the number of food items and calendars that you buy since they won’t last
til the next year. Most items I bought were <$5 and no more than
$10… I figure, this is the KIDS using their allowances to buy for their
families, so we don’t want them to be disappointed with high prices!
2007 Purchases:
> Christmas Tree Shop $217 93 items
> Oriental Trading $612 500 items approx
> Michaels $157 100 items
> Home Depot $112 36 items
> The Beadin Path $54 materials to make 40 pair of earrings
> ---------------------------------------------------------
> > TOTAL $1152 and 769 items Plus about 20
items Peggy got at the Dollar Store.
We also had Beacon Lights Fundraiser items to sell as well as some
Party Lite items from someone who was leaving the business.
(Estimating 150 kids on a good Holiday Shop day, 5 items each
= 750 items, so we wanted at least that many items. Prior year’s
numbers were: they spent $956.25 and took in $848.30
giving the Holiday Shop a loss of 107.95.)
Pricing: Holiday shop hasn’t been meant to be a fundraiser,
so I just marked up 25% and rounded up to the nearest quarter for the Oriental
Trading, Michael’s and Home Depot items. Since the Christmas Tree
Shop puts price stickers on everything, I added the 6% CT sales tax and
rounded up to the nearest quarter for those items.
I printed up price sheets listing the items and their price to keep
at the checkout and to have on the tables.
Things to line up ahead of time:
Plan a SNOW DATE on the original memo so people will know ahead
of time. Verify these dates with the office secretary and custodians.
Vice President in charge of Committees should have a list of
volunteers – call or e-mail to see who can make it on your dates.
Santa and Mrs. Claus (Jeanette Krauss has a contact on
this) and verify snow date
Bake Sale (maybe an older girl scout troop would do it
for you? Or Shelly’s troop
Change for the cash boxes/registers…
I recommend rounding to the nearest quarter and include sales
tax in that price
So each of the 4 registers/cash boxes should start with:
$20 - 2 rolls of quarters
$30 - 30 1dollarbills
$50 - 10 5dollarbills
Make up a flier to send home and have Mrs. Epstein and PTA president
approve it. Send it out on the e-mail distribution list a week or
so ahead of time, then send a quick reminder the night before. Post
the flier around the school and on the PTA information center. I
took photos of some items and taped to the flier.
Make sure the custodian of the evening sets up the tables as you would
like them. I had a square … 2 large tables on each side and
the 2 in front for registers/wrapping that worked out well.
One or two tables in the hall for Bake Sale and tattoos and word search/coloring.
Have Mrs. Epstein put the Holiday Shop information on the morning/afternoon
announcements.
VOLUNTEERS are needed for:
4 check out lines, when it is busiest
2 + Tattoos (Maybe some 5th graders could handle this?)
4 or more people to help shoppers and watch tables
2 or more people to handle the wrapping table
Santa and Mrs. Claus in charge of giving out candy canes
This is the estimate if you have a GOOD night…. If there is bad
weather or you have to reschedule quick, probably half this number should
be fine. The Vice President in charge of Committees should have a
list of volunteers for you who signed up at the beginning of the year.
If you are running short on volunteers, ask a Girl/boy scout troop to help
or some 5th graders.
Have someone be in charge of bringing/organizing:
Coffee, cups, napkins
PTA membership sign up… might need some change $ for this table
too
Bake Sale (if you don’t get a Girl Scout troop) and change
$
Holiday Music
Red plastic Table cloths (about 10)
Print out holiday word searches/coloring pages from online and
bring crayons for kids who finish early or need something to do.
Wrapping bags/paper: Lisa got cellophane bags and tissue
paper for smaller items that worked out well. Get just a couple of
rolls of wrapping paper and tape for the larger stuff.
Setup: Allow 1 hour for setup with at least 5 volunteers.
I had a square of tables … 2 large lunch tables on each side
and the 2 in front for registers/wrapping that worked out well. Worked
out well for the number of items we had. Two tables in the hall for
Bake Sale, and tattoos and word search/coloring. I put all
the items from Oriental Trading on 2-3 tables, Home Depot another table…
since this is how I had the price sheets organized. We did not bother
with receipts in 2007.
Cleanup: Took about an hour with about 8 people. It was
a nice idea to inventory on the price sheets what was left at the end for
the next person who will be in charge of this the next year. Also,
pass on (copies of) the receipts so the chairperson-to-be knows
what was bought. Save all leftover items in the PTA closets
on the stage.
Hand out leftover calendars and food items to volunteers.