What Is a Holiday Shop?
Holiday shops, also known as Santa shops, are popular with kids and parents, and volunteers often enjoy helping children make their choices. The basic setup is that parent groups provide merchandise, which students can purchase as gifts for family members and friends (including pets!). Many groups mark up the items to run the shop as a fundraiser, while others sell the items at cost as a service for families.
How Does a School Holiday Shop Work?
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Decide on a name for your shop. Popular names include Winter Wonderland, Candy Cane Lane, and Santa’s Workshop.
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Make sure to choose a good mix of gift items at a variety of price points. It’s best if most items are less than $5 to $10 each. You’ll want to set up your shop in a spot with enough space to display the items and manage crowd control, such as the school library or multipurpose room.
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Work with teachers and administrators to schedule previews and shopping times for each class. And have a plan to discreetly help children who can't afford to shop; this might be done with gift certificates or store credit, for example.
Benefits of Working With a Holiday Shop Company
A DIY holiday shop is a big organizational challenge, with a lot of up-front planning, cash outlay for gift items, and volunteer recruitment. By working with a holiday shop vendor, you can order merchandise on consignment (no preselling or money up front) and use the preloaded store app for purchases to make the checkout process even simpler and faster. No money goes to the vendor until the shop is over; you’ll only pay for what you sell, and return any unsold items.
Most vendors will send the holiday shop chair a planning packet with tips for a successful event, promotional materials, bags, tablecloths, and signage. And, since it’s tough to predict what the hot items will be, working with a provider gives your group a pain-free way to restock from day to day.
Below are some popular companies that provide holiday shop services to school parent groups. Give them a look to find the one that works for your school community.
Lil’ Shopper’s Shoppe
Overview
The Lil' Shopper's Shoppe makes your in-school holiday shop easy! We are not only a one-stop shop for a fun and successful fundraiser, but also a dedicated partner in ensuring that your school’s holiday gift shop delights students, parents, and educators. Lil’ Shopper’s Shoppe provides everything essential for a stress-free experience—quality gifts, supplies, technology, signing bonuses, and more! We are a family owned and operated company that has earned the trust and respect of schools and volunteers nationwide for over 45 years.
Features and Benefits
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Quality: We are the only company to design 100% of our gifts and 85% cost $5.00 or less.
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Ease: We will send you everything you need to guarantee your school a smooth and easy experience.
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Bonus: At sign-up, your school chooses from several exclusive bonus offers.
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Free Shipping and Supplies: All your orders will ship UPS or next day air with no fees or costs.
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Flexible Invoicing: We offer each school the option of Count or No-Count inventory for invoicing.
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Cash Register App: Our exclusive app makes checkout easy and accepts credit cards with no fees.
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Gift Certificates: Families can pre-purchase gift cards so their child doesn’t need to carry cash.
Pricing and Profits
We provide everything you need:
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No out of pocket or up-front costs
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Only pay for the gifts you sell
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Return all unsold gifts
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The holiday shop can be run as a service program or as a fundraiser
Choose your profit: 0%, 10%, 20% or set your own prices
Sign up and use promo code PTOHolidayShop to receive a $300 carnival kit. Choose an additional sign-up bonus:
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150 Lil’ Shopper’s Shoppe dollars
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5% additional profit
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$300 carnival kit
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Pre-programmed cash register rental with 0%, 10% or 20% profit
What Parent Groups Are Saying About Lil’ Shopper’s Shoppe
“I ran the Lil’ [Shopper’s] Shoppe for my son’s school and we absolutely loved it. The items were of great quality and reasonable pricing. The company made sure we were taken care of and had everything we needed. And if we ran out of something it was overnighted to us. 10/10 would definitely recommend. And I can’t wait to work with them again next year!”
—Meghan Marvin, PTO Holiday Shop Chairperson, Berea Elementary, Greenville, SC (Google review posted June 5, 2022)
Holiday Treasures Gift Shop
Overview
Give kids at your school the Joy of Giving to family and friends this holiday. For over 50 years, Holiday Treasures has built its reputation as the quality gift shop provider. We are still family owned and operated and have grown into one of the largest suppliers of in-school holiday shops in the country. Our shops feature gift store quality at kid friendly prices, backed by smart technology to make your shop easy. You’ll love our Ez Scanner checkout system for ringing up sales and tracking inventory. Our real-time reporting shows you all the detail for your sales and profit. We make your PTO look good!
Features and Benefits
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Gift Store Quality – You’ll See the Difference
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Kid Friendly Prices - Most $1 to $6
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Handheld Scanners for Checkout
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Overnight Reorders Guaranteed
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Easy Sales & Inventory Tracking
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Online Gift Vouchers
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100% Gift Guarantee
Pricing and Profits
Run your holiday shop as a service or as a fundraiser. Your Parent Association chooses the markup on your gifts of 5%, 10% or 20%. The majority of gifts are priced between $1 and $6. Ask us about our Treasure Buck coupons for children needing a little assistance. Additional bonuses apply for early signing.
What Parent Groups Are Saying About Holiday Treasures Gift Shop
“This was our first Holiday shop using Holiday Treasures. We absolutely loved the ease of setting up and displaying the items. We were pleasantly surprised with the products and students found everything for someone on their shopping list. We used the shop for two schools and customer support was outstanding when we had any questions! We will be using them for years to come.”
—South Lake School, St. Clair Shores, MI
Kids’ Kastle Holiday Shoppe
Overview
Kids’ Kastle is one of the most sought-after Kid’s “Holiday Shoppes” in the nation. Why? Service and Quality. For 40 years, we have been the best decision schools make for their In-School Holiday Shoppe for their students. Our products are carefully selected for their quality and value. We will guide and support you from start to finish. Our staff have run Holiday Shoppes in their respective PTO, PTA, HSAs over the years. We know how to best help and guide you to Holiday Shoppe Success. We promise to do everything we can to make this a fun and rewarding experience for all those involved.
Features and Benefits
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Quality Merchandise
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Next Day Reorders
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No Count Inventory System
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Cash Register APP & Gift Certificates
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Chairperson Website Personalized For Your School
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85% of Merchandise $5 and Under Including your Profit
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5 Star Customer Service
Pricing and Profits
Choose our “No Count” System or Traditional “Count/Set your own pricing Inventory System.” Our No Count inventory allows you to unpack, set up and start selling. Select your profit in advance and receive custom printed tent cards for your tables along with table clothes, posters, Parent Letters, Budget Envelopes, and social media posts. Just keep track of your daily sales and utilize our online invoicing system to generate your invoice. Your profit and invoice will be calculated automatically.
What Parent Groups Are Saying About Kids’ Kastle Holiday Shoppe
“Our Kid's Kastle Holiday Shoppe was fantastic! It was great to be able to get back to having a Holiday Shoppe for the students and believe me Kid's Kastle is the way to go. There was a wide variety of items to purchase and the prices were right on point. We were also extremely pleased reordering items as they were quickly selling out. Call your order in by 1pm and we received it before 11 the next day!!!! Our entire experience with Adam Kaplan and his staff was very satisfying. I would give them a 10 out of 10 and look forward to next sale.”
—S. Lovas, Arbor Intermediate, Piscataway, NJ
Fun Services
Overview
For over 50 years, Fun Services has delivered our original holiday shopping programs to schools across the country. Being America’s longest running gift shop provider has enabled us to offer our customers the most polished and professional shop available. Our Santa’s Secret Shop® and The Holiday Gift Shop® Programs were designed to provide students with an opportunity to purchase high quality gifts for family and friends at school in a safe, comfortable, and friendly environment. It is an educational experience, where students learn the importance of saving their money for holiday surprises.
Features and Benefits
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Local Offices and Warehouses – Fun Services has local offices to serve you fast
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Kid friendly and priced gifts for every member of the family
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Reorders delivered by local your local office – we are in your area!
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Promotional resource guide and materials plus self-sealing gift bags.
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Easy check-out process
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Sign-up bonus – talk to your local office for details
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50+ years’ experience - Originators of the In-School shopping program
Pricing and Profits
Fun Services allows you to price the items that best fits your school. You choose the profit percentage, and we supply you with all the pricing. As easy as that!
What Parent Groups Are Saying About Fun Services
“As President of our school's PTO, I can choose which type of fundraising is best for us. One of our favorites is Santa's Secret Workshop. Fun Services provides us with everything we need to have a successful event. Our students look forward to the workshop every year. The parents are greatly appreciative because of the quality of their products and the affordability. Michael and Laura help make the student's and our Christmas event something special.”
—Sherri Stanley, Rudolph Matas School, Metarie, LA
