We've used a vendor for the last couple years. We like the Elf Shelf. We go through a company called SchoolPals. They have reps all over. They give us free stuff to give away and they don't make us do any inventory. Last year they bought us a cash register to use and keep. They are so much easier than when we used to shop ourselves and they have a guarantee on their gifts too. It's nice to have all the work done for us. They give us what we need with gift bags and parent letters and stuff and then pick up what we don't sell. The kids love it.
Our school has been using a company called Superb Fundraising for many years. They deliver the merchandise to the school and we get volunteers to set up. We run the shop for the whole week. Prices range from .25 to $7.00. Unfortunately, I had to cancel the shop this year due to lack of volunteers stepping forward to help and because we have over 200 more children in our school this year due to school closings.
We to run a similar santa shop as mentioned--our gifts range in price from .25 to $5.00. We get most of our gift items from clearance racks and dollar type stores and toy depot, kipp or oriental trading magazines. We too send home and envelope with a space saying who the child needs to get a gift for and how much they can spend on each person--the kids love to come to the secret sants shop--they have so much fun. We hold our shop for a week at the school and teachers sign up to bring their class down for 45 minutes on one day. Last year we did have to go out shopping a few times that week for items in the price ranges we had set--some price ranges ran low very quickly but when you have a student with $50 and they want to buy all .50 items they get alot LOL!!.
