We have planned a craft show in lieu of Santa's secret shop which has been at our school for years. After sending out about 150 applications and advertising in our local paper, local cable channel, billboards and city marquees, we've only gotten 10 applications back! A good idea that just can't get off the ground. Any suggestions for how to get crafters???

Dont be upset about it we would also like to have a craft show but who has the time or money to make and buy alll the materials for the craft show why not use the 10 applications you have and ask them to donate the items to the secret santa kids really enjoy shopping secretly dont get rid of the santa shop just have fun

Hi, Our school has 2 separate events at Christmas that might work for you. We have our Santa Shop like most schools. But we also have a Breakfast with Santa the Saturday morning after school lets out for Christmas Break! This year we will be having booth spaces for crafters at the Breakfast - I've been told we've done this before and it worked very well. I thought this idea would be perfect for your 10 applications that where returned! The last 2years we've tried just having make & take craft tables for the kids - it worked OK but didn't draw the crowds that the "craft Bazarre" are should. Good Luck!

We also have a Breakfast with Santa each year that's lots of fun. We have pictures with Santa, donuts & juice, and about 3 crafts the kids can make. Last year we added karoke which was a big hit and kept the place festive with all the Christmas songs and dancing!

On the crafters, we added this to carnival a couple years ago, and it was okay as a supplemental piece. What we didn't really expect (or plan for) was that 2 or 3 of the crafters also brought coolers of softdrinks and snacks to sell along with their crafts. This ended up competing slightly with our own food sales.

We decided next time (if ever) we'd add a clause in the letter prohibiting the sale of food items without advance permission.

[This message has been edited by JHB (edited 09-30-2000).]

What is Santa's Secret shop? Our School is searching for alternative fund raisers to a Fall Festival & this sounds fun.

Santa's Secret shop at our school, has always just been a service to the kids. It is not a big money maker and it is a LOT of work!

We previously used a company called Fun Services to go to and pick out the items we wanted to sell, Then you can mark the prices up 5%, 10% or whatever. Keeping in mind that kids will be doing the shopping. That is how you make the profit.

The comments from parents at our school has been that the products are of poor quality and are expensive. You can also get crafter parents to donate items to sell and then you make 100% profit on those items. Again, things are sold relatively cheap because the shopping is done by the kids for their family gifts.

Good luck if you decide to proceed. We did Santa's secret shop for 10 years and finally decided to try a craft show.