Piazza -

Sorry it has taken me so long to respond.
We came up with the theme and then used it in as many areas as possible. For oscar night you can make clapboards out of cardboard and construction paper then mount them in the center of the table with flowers or candles around them. Come up with creative names for your donations - a chocolate basket becomes "Cocolat", golf becomes "The legand of Baggar Vance", tickets to Disneyland become "National Lampoon's Vacation".

We haven't spent too much time decorating the entire room because it is held at a golf county club and the room is nice. If your event is being held in a hall you may want to put up balloons or something (try to get as much material donated by local business!)

Let your imagination run once you have come up with your theme idea. Post it here and you will get great ideas!

I actually moved and now I am faced with putting together my own auction. I did it last year with some resistance from other parents and did really well considering I did it alone. This year I actually have my own committe!(or is that we should all be committed?)

Sandy

Intomykids,
Could you tell me some more about your events? I'm trying to be the head of too many things that my brain is already fried!! Thanks a lot!!!!

My school has done Oscar night - all the categories were designed around that theme. You can make clapboards for centerpieces. We had a '70 s night - they collected platform shoes - spray painted them in bright colors and used them for "vases" on the tables.

We love to use themes, it makes it so much more fun. Our auctions usually net about 20,000 but the last one netted 57,000. We were all in shock. Our budget was non existent, we used brown butcher paper on the tables, stamped them with navy and red sponges,boots & longhorns etc. We had a nursery donate plants and we bought copper containers and sold the centerpieces, so they paid for themselves. We found jalpeno lights on clearance for a buck a strand after Christmas so we went nuts with those. We also borrowed decorations from a family that did a "Cowboy Christmas" theme each year. The brochures listing the items were just parchment paper that Western writing and a star stamped on it. The biggest dollar winner were the classroom projects that each grade did. People that did not even have children there were bidding on bird baths and quilts and chests that the kids decorated. The saloons out of tin and cypress cost nothing and were too cute and we bought inexpensive black and red bib front aprons and safety pinned boas around the neck. The guys just wore garter armbands. It was too much fun!

This past year the kids outdid them selves selling raffle tickets so we used a part of the proceeds and held an "Our school is too cool Bash". We had several tons of snow delivered at the school in January (keep in mind, its Houston, we don't get snow)
We borrowed a snowman costume for the principal to wear. The papers even came out and covered it. Oh and we served snowcones.

What an awesome idea!! We have an auction & potluck!! And the rodeo or any other theme would be great! I never thought of that!! Could you tell me some more of what you did for the auction? What was the cost? We have a really small budget for our potluck/auction.

We hold an auction every other year for the school. Our last auction was a great success and we used the them "Back at the Ranch". We had it the weekend before the rodeo hit town in Houston and held it at the school. Some of the dads constructed false front saloons, we got costumes for the high school volunteers. The theme lent itself to some really innovative and cute ideas from the brochures to the table decor to the "Wanted Posters" used for publicity. We even secured a band that played western classics like Gene Autrey tunes. We doubled our previous earnings from any other auction. OK-Now we need to top that! I need a theme that is creative and lends itself to great decorations that can be done on a small budget, some of our ideas include Circus, Circus maybe even a New Orleans style event with a jazz band. Any suggestions? Thanks in advance!!

Karen