Our school is holding it's first carnival, and we need to order prizes for the games. We have no clue how many/what type to order. We've got several catalogues of prizes, but need an idea of the number of prizes to order. Our school is a small (140 students), rural one--the town it is in is only about 200 or less people.

Also, what prices do you charge for the games? All the same or different? We will be using a ticket system where you purchase tickets and use those to "pay" for the games.

Any help/suggestions are appreciated!

Our teachers run our school carnival but parents work in the booths on half hour shifts. The pto runs white elephant bingo in the gym at the same time. They order all prizes from The Oriental Trading Company. As to how much?? I have no idea how you could judge that with out having any prior data--A shot in the dark there. I do believe from this company any unopened packages can be returned. We sell the tickets (blue) for 25 cents each and most games take 1 ticket and the kids recieve a ticket (yellow) for just playing, and two if they win. The yellow tickets can be redeamed for prizes in the prize booth. Prizes are given a ticket value similar to Peter Piper Pizza (except our prizes are nicer and cost less tickets to get a nice gift). I hope this helps. Ü

We also order from Oriental Trading Company. Most of there stuff comes in bags of 144(Unit). What you don't use store for next year. We do our carnival at Halloween time and we also have a dinner. We give the first 250 children through the door a bag with a couple of small prizes and 10 free tickets everyone in the valley is welcome then we sell tickets for those who run out for 25 cents each. We have small prizes if you loose and a larger prize if you win and let them pick the prize out of the bucket. I could go on for hours, if you want to know more about our games or other activities that we do that night e-mail me.

I have ordered all the prizes for our fair for two years. We have 422 families/550 students. I order through USTOY and Toy Depot as they offer free shiping and handling and I like their quality MUCH better that Oriental Trading Co. I also do not always want a gross of most prizes. Our tickets are 25 cents each. Advance sale tickets are 5 for a dollar. Most games are 50 cents. If you win a game you earn a star ticket which can be redeemed at the prize tables. If you lose you get a "booby" prize- in recent years this has been a tootsie rol (bought from a wholesaler) The prize tables have 1,2,3,4,6,8,and10 ticket prizes. A one ticket prize cost us under a quarter, 2 ticket prize under 50 cents and so on. I inventory all the prizes so I know how many I used both years. lots of work now but I can order by phone from home again next year and lnow I have what I need. We use some left over prizes for our Pumpkin Fest in the fall. We have used 889 one star prizes, 495 2 star, 328 3 star, 186 4 star, 96 6 star ticket, 45 8 star, 25 10 star prize. I also buy lollipops for the lollypop tree. This year we went through 500 Blow Pops!!!! We also sell inflatables and go through 6 dozen. I bag prizes for the treasure chest (I try to use left over from last year one star prizes that were a bust) and make 300 bags. we have an apron lady-she walks around with an apron on with many pockets on it. We supply 300 prizes and it works like a grab bag. I buy 4800 booby prizes and had a LOT left over. Hope this helps some. Good Luck I actually enjoy this committee. US Toys number- 1-800-255-6124 (www.ustoy.com and toy depot 1-800-873-1774 fax-1-800-873-1758

We just had our 46th Winter Carnival...we do not have rides, but we do have tons of games. We use a company that also does Santa Secret Shop...they supply the games for free because we buy the prizes from them. The company sets all prize levels on their prizes as well as the cost to play each game. ALL unused merchandise is sent back...even if it has been opened. We have a ticket pre-sale the week before the carnival at a price of 5 for a dollar (the night of the carnival it is 4 for a dollar) All kiddie land games (2nd grade and younger) are 1 ticket and they always get a consolation prize...the rest of the games are 2 or 3 tickets. We also use the tickets for food. My big suggestion to any organization using ticket sales is use the double rolls of tickets they kind that have the "keep this Ticket" on one side. Because of questions in the past we used this system this year...the volunteers selling tickets would keep the stub and it basically works as a receipt of how many tickets that person sold. We usually only made about $1000.00 profit when it was all said and done but this year we almost tripled it:) We also had alot of local business's donate things...cake for cake walk, pop for pop walk, and if they donated money we used it to buy more cakes. To recognize these "school friendly" businesses on the back of the map with game location that everyone received we listed them. Carnival's are great fun for the kids and well worth the hard work...don't forget if you are short volunteers contact your high school's honor society and the local senior center...we also had Mason's that came too. Our biggest attraction has been the jail...kids pay a ticket to put someone in and their "bail is two"...we have auxillary police that come in to help us run this one. Good luck and have fun:)

[This message has been edited by chrystal (edited 04-17-2001).]

Kat,

We have our Carnival in the fall. I was in the same boat as you are. I called Oriental Trading Co and one of their representatives helped me with the same questions you are asking. They were very helpful! The number is 800-228-2269.

Good-Luck...