Bottle bag grab
Ask supporters to donate full, unopened bottles of anything they wish. Place them in plain bags and seal each one at the top. Participants pay £1 to choose a bag. They could get anything from shampoo to champagne (if they’re lucky). If alcohol is involved, only those over 18 can play. For a child-friendly version, request appropriate soft drinks and charge 50p a bag.
Cake stall
Ask for cake donations from supporters and local businesses in the lead-up to the fair. Price according to size and complexity.
Chocolate/sweet jar tombola
Ask parents to donate boxes of chocolates or jars of sweets before the fair, perhaps in exchange for a non-uniform day. Stick raffle tickets on top of each prize and use the same numbers – plus more – in the tombola. Spin the tombola and let the player pull out a number. The player wins whichever prize corresponds to their number.
Christmas jumper stall
A year is a long time, and the jumpers that fitted pupils last year will likely be too small now. Hold an appeal for unwanted Christmas jumpers and accessories and sell them on at your fair.
Decorate a Christmas jar
Shirley Smith, Rosemellin CP School PTA, Camborne: Ask pupils to fill a jar with sweets and decorate it to look festive – it can be any size jar and any sweets they choose. Use them on a tombola stall and charge 50p a go. For an extra challenge, offer a prize for the best-decorated jar.
Take home a teddy
Ask for donations of good-quality soft toys or source free ones on a classified ad site such as Gumtree. Put them through the washing machine, attach a name tag around their necks and put all the names in a hat. Children pull out a name and win the corresponding animal.
Tinsel pull
Wrap a large cardboard box in festive paper and put several holes in the side. Cut some long and short lengths of tinsel and poke them through, so it’s not possible to tell the length of each. Players choose a string and only the long ones win a prize.
Water into wine
Ask parents and carers to save their empty wine bottles, complete with screw tops and bring them in a few weeks before the fair. Request donations of full wine bottles too. Fill the empty ones with water and wrap all the bottles in newspaper, using a ratio of one bottle of wine to five bottles of water. Players pick a bottle at random. Over 18s only.
