CapeDad,
Thanks for all of the info. That would be wonderful to have a look at your flyers. By the way, how many students are in your school? We only have 650 and I have purchased just over 2,000 items so far and am still looking. We are having a Snowman Showcase this week for the parents at our Family Reading Night/General Meeting. We are hoping that this will encourage them to let their kids shop. Last year was such poor quality of merchandise we have got to win the parents back so we are hoping this will do it. Thanks again.

We run our own, and I am happy to say, as president, that I have almost nothing to do with it this year.

We will run two flyers. The first is going out the end of this week. It will announce the shop and ask for volunteers to help operate it.

The second, which will go out two weeks before the shop, will have a short paragraph reminding what the shop is and a place to list people the child is to shop for. We talked about having parents put down amounts, too, like Grandpa J -- $5, but I am not sure if that's going to happen or not.

Our Holiday Shoppe will run from December 1-12, so we have a lot of flexibility.

We will have over 10 thousand items and have spent about $10 thousand. If we sell out, we will net over $10 thousand. (It's a little scary, and we did not set out to make quite so much, but all of the items are at huge discounts compared to department stores or mall vendors.)

By ordering early, we got lots of discounts and lots of free shipping. We also had a lot to choose from compared to last year when we didn't order until November.

If we get our flyers uploaded to the website soon, I'll post a link here.

I am starting to shop and organize for the Christmas shop as well. I would love to hear ideas from people that have done it themselves and not gone with an outside company. Anyone???

Our School PTO is putting on a Snowman Shop this year during the first week of Dec. We have purchased items on clearance throughout the year and at discount stores. We have decided not to go with a company. So I need some ideas on the envelopes(with lists of family members to buy for), letter sent home announcing the sale, etc. Does anyone happpen to have any forms that they can email to me or plenty of ideas. Last year we ran one but through a company. Our past president took care of everything and did not leave anything for us this year. So we want to make sure this one goes really well. I will accept all of the help and guidance that anyone can give. Thanks.