A chinese auction is were there are a bunch of baskets and people buy tickets and put them in to win that basket.

We have just completed a very successful theme basket raffle. Each classroom or school group is invited to put together a basket and they keep all proceeds. Tickets are $1 each OR 6 for $5 and we had 15 baskets. Some popular themes include Bird-watching, Fall gardening, Chocolate Lovers, Horse Lovers, Playground fun, Art supplies, Pumpkins, Relaxation, Family Entertainment. Many local businesses will donate a gift certificate that fits into a particular theme. This was our third year doing this and the baskets were INCREDIBLE!

Here are a few more ideas to use....

Hot Wheels -

Education - flash cards, coloring books, crayons, reading books, etc

TLC - foot wash, calgon, candle bath beads, lotions, foot massager etc

Family Fun - popcorn, softdrinks, candy, nuts, etc

Picnic basket - table set for 4, table cloth, bug spray, suntain lotion, frisbee, football(all these items can be put in a picnic basket instead of basket)

baby basket - q-tips, bibs, diapers, blankets,

barbie dolls -

video - blockbuster gift card, popcorn, soda, candy

Hmmmm.........the possibilities are endless

We have also used the following ideas:

Angels
Pet Lovers
Disney
Camping/Outdoors
Golf
Outdoor Party
Scrapbook
Candles

We are in Texas so we also do a Texas Pride basket along with baskets from University of Texas and Texas A&M. There is a big rivalry between those two schools so its a "pride" thing to see which one goes for the most money.

Good luck to all!

We did a similar project and it was quite successful. We had many themedd baskets including family game night, bed time story, sick in bed, etc.

Audra,

Instead of silent bids, we sell chances to win the baskets. our school has many low income families that will spend from $1 to $5 but will not bid large amounts of money for the baskets. We are lucky to have 40 to 60 members (not all participating) in our PTO out of a school of +400.

Hope this helps !

Renee [img]smile.gif[/img] :cool: