The best Christmas fair ideas for a PTA are the ones a few volunteers can run on the day: a Christmas raffle, a tombola, a grotto with timed tickets, games paid for with token cards, and stalls the whole school helps to fill. Below are 18 ideas that work in a school hall or playground, each with a note on what it takes to run.
In This Guide
The big earners
- A Christmas raffle. Ask local businesses and families for prizes, sell tickets in the weeks before the fair and draw them on the day. Printed books of tickets with your own prizes, draw date and promoter on them look the part and are easy to sell at the school gate. See our Christmas raffle ticket designs, and check which rules apply to your kind of raffle in our guide to raffles without a licence.
- A raffle web page. Not every family makes it to the school gate. A raffle web page with the prizes, the draw date and how to get a ticket can be shared on the class WhatsApp groups. When you order Christmas raffle tickets from us, a raffle web page is set up for you free: see your Christmas fair, sorted.
- A class hamper raffle. Give each class a theme (a pamper hamper, a film night, a Christmas breakfast) and ask families to send in one item each. Every finished hamper becomes a raffle prize, and children love seeing their class's hamper on the prize table.
- Santa's grotto with timed tickets. The grotto is often the longest queue of the day. Selling timed tickets before the fair, or at the door, spreads the visits out, tells you how many presents to wrap and lets families enjoy the rest of the fair instead of standing in line. Printed event tickets with a time on each make the slots easy to check at the grotto door.
- A tombola. A bottle tombola for grown-ups, a chocolate tombola for children, or both. Number the prizes, fold the tickets and keep the stall stocked through the day. Our guide to Christmas tombola and prize ideas covers collecting prizes and setting the stall up.
Stalls the whole school can fill
- Cake and mince pie stall. Ask every family for one bake, label anything with nuts, and price everything in round amounts so change is easy.
- Pupils' craft stall. Christmas cards, decorations and gift tags made in class. Families buy what their own children made, and it costs almost nothing to put on.
- Preloved toys and books. Collect good-condition toys, books and games in the weeks before. Sort them by age so families can find things quickly.
- Wreath and table decoration table. A volunteer with a few boxes of greenery, ribbon and pine cones can run a make-your-own table, charged per wreath.
- Hot chocolate and refreshments. Somewhere to sit with a drink keeps families at the fair for longer, and longer at the fair usually means another go on the tombola.
Games and fun
- Games on token cards. Hook-a-present, snowball throw and reindeer ring toss each need a float and someone to count it, unless families pay with a token card bought at the door. Each game takes a token or a stamp, and the money is counted once. Our Christmas fair games guide has more ideas, and you can order printed token cards or design your own.
- Guess the name of the teddy. A teddy, a list of names and a small charge per guess. The right name, sealed in an envelope before the fair, wins the teddy.
- Guess the weight of the Christmas cake. The closest guess wins the cake. Weigh it before the fair and keep the answer sealed.
- Christmas jumper competition. A small charge to enter, judged by the head teacher or Santa, with a certificate for the winner of each age group. See our printed certificates.
- Carols and performances. A slot for the school choir, a class nativity song or the recorder group brings in families who might not otherwise come, and they stay for the stalls afterwards.
Making the fair look and run like one event
- Posters around the school and the village. Put the date, the time and the big draws (the grotto, the raffle) on a poster and get it up three or four weeks before: the school gate, the newsletter, the local shop windows and the parish noticeboard. You can design a Christmas fair poster free in our studio, or see our printed posters.
- A sign on every stall. A sign with the stall's name and its prices saves volunteers answering the same question all afternoon, and matching signs make the hall look like one fair. Make stall signs free in the design studio, or see our printed stall signs.
Saying thank you
- Thank-you certificates for volunteers and donors. A fair runs on parents who bake, set up tables and stay to clear up, and on the businesses who gave prizes. A certificate of thanks, or a framed one for a local business to put in its window, is a small thing that people remember when you ask again next year. See our certificates.
Frequently Asked Questions
How far ahead should a PTA plan a Christmas fair?
Book the hall and set the date first, then give yourselves time to collect raffle and tombola prizes, which is usually the slowest part. Many PTAs start asking for prizes in early autumn and put posters up three or four weeks before the fair.
Do we need a licence for a raffle at our Christmas fair?
It depends on the kind of raffle: one sold and drawn on the day at the fair is treated differently from one with tickets sold in the weeks before. Our guide to raffles without a licence explains the kinds and what each needs.
How do we stop the grotto queue taking over the hall?
Sell timed slots, so families know when to come back, and put the grotto in a separate room or a corner away from the stalls.
What is the easiest way to handle cash at the games?
Token cards. Families buy them at the door, each game takes a token or a stamp, and only the door handles money.