Kitchen Garden Forum

hello
just wanted to pick your brains
we want some new ideas for stalls at the xmas fete and money raising ideas for school
the adults usually run it but parents and children help too
any sensible ideas most welcome
i usually do face painting!

ideally you want games that appeal to adults or older children theyve got more money to lose, and time the event so dads are there, they are a softer touch for the littleones to extort money from

splat the rat is a good one, 8 foot length of plank with a 6 foot length of 4 inch plastic sewer pipe duck taped to it so the rat (sock filled with sand) will slide down the incined pipe onto the 2 foot bit of plank stuck out the bottom. support the top end on a step ladder and secure with bungy straps. mark a target zone on the plank about a foot long immediatly under the end of the pipe. the punter is given a 18 inch piece of 20mm plastic water pipe to use as a trunchion to wack the rat as it leaves the end of the pipe pinning it to the marked area of the plank. only one attempted wack per rat. we usually do 3 wacks for 50p win a quid for catching one or 10 for all three. usually give a 1,2,3 countdown before releasing the rat down the pipe. nobodies caught one yet, but they all think its easy!!!

another one is the padlock and tub of keys, one of the keys fits the padlock and wins the prize . agian 50p for 3 keys which get put back in for the next punter so they always have the tubful , 50 odd , to choose from. we always have two winning keys one silver one brass only one of which is in the tub. if someone wins swop winning keys so the crafty little blighter watching thinking he will be able to recognise the good key on the next go picks out all the wrong coloured ones. remember you are there to extort all their money not to give them prizes twisted:

Hi Jopsy!
My daughters school association makes a ton of money each Xmas from a 'decorated beaker' competition.
Each child is given a plastic pint glass to bring home. The beaker is duly decorated in the most imaginative and festive way possible and filled with goodies such as sweets, crayons, cheap toys etc. The only stipulation being that the contents should be at least partially visible. We did a turkey with all the trimmings last year and won a small prize (yeah, well, ok, I did help a bit!)
On the day of the Christmas fair the children buy a raffle ticket for 50p and are guaranteed to 'win' a beaker, but the littlest ones have to be told that they won't necessarily get their own back!

thanks you two
those ideas are just the kind of thing we need
keep them coming in peeps!
i wont take all the credit after half term!

Jopsy - I love your suggestion that parents aren't adults........

Sad though it may be, judging from the girls I see pushing their buggies into the Jobcentre (opposite my office) she's bang on with that statement!

erm well the last lot of newbies i got in ill swear one of the mums is 12!
she behaves like it too
35 minutes late last friday she was!!
sorry if i offended anyone!

dont worry we are used to our childrens teachers thinking we are 5 years old

richard i assure you i thought you were 6

I got called 'Nanny' by mistake last week - I didn't let on I'd heard, but it was a jolt after being called Mum by mistake for years. Quite a lot of the parents are as young as my children, but I find it puts me at an advantage at last, after years of dealing with pushy parents who expect me to wave a magic wand over their children and transform them into Einsteins or something.I thought about Nanny after and I thought - well Nannies are not just old but special people to little ones, and if I can make school a happy, secure place to these little ones I'll carry on a few more years.

Meant to say I made £120 on preserves this autumn at our fair - £2 a pot - sold out in just over an hour.What about cake making for homework? The cake stall is our biggest winner. Face painting.Jam jars decorated in Christmas paper so that you can't see what's inside, some with prizes and some empty on tombola style, not sending jam jars away of course because of safety factor. Soft toy stall with a soft toy collection at school.Hot dog stall.

i think nanny is nice
im more insulted when i get mummy esp when i look nothing like their mum-some of them are a tad scary!
our secretary occasionally gets called dad, which makes her lol!!

when i was on our kids playgroup commitee one of the mums was the daughter of someone i went to school with, made me feel quite old

My dear Jopsy, i think Jane E might have found the answer to your problem for raising money, it could be in the cooking.
You could make mince pies and sell them to the British Army, they could use them as armour piercing missiles.
I apologize for that in advance.
I just couldn't resist it any more.

Kind regards Old Herbaceous.

Theres no fool like an old fool.

Hi all,

Oldherbaceous will you stop it my sides are aching.
Sorry jopsy but you have to laugh

Regards

Kevin