Advent calendar
Assemble 24 numbered envelopes and ask the children to choose one. Inside they’ll find a card telling them the prize they have won or that they’ve been unlucky. Keep swapping the cards around, so no one knows what they will get. Award small prizes or tokens for other games or stalls (ie free cake from the cake stall). For more excitement, secure a few bigger prizes, such as vouchers for local attractions.
Ball or Brussel?
A lucky dip where players get either a bouncy ball or a Brussels sprout. Wrap sprouts and sprout-sized balls in tinfoil and ask participants to choose. They keep whatever they’ve picked. Work out the ratio of sprouts to balls to ensure you make a profit. Recycle the foil. Compost any leftover sprouts or give them to pet owners. Alternatively, use chocolate balls instead of the bouncy variety. Ask your supermarket community champion for donations.
Biscuit decorating
Ask for biscuit donations from a local supermarket or encourage volunteers to bake a few batches in Christmassy shapes. Offer children icing sugar and colourful icing in squeezy bottles to prevent it from drying out, and let them be as creative as they wish. Let them finish their masterpieces with a selection of mini-sweets and sprinkles in small bowls.
Choco cards
You’ll need two packs of playing cards. Lay one pack face up, placing a wrapped chocolate on some cards and booby prizes or nothing on the others. Offer the children the other pack face down and let them pick a card. They win the prize that corresponds to the card they choose.
Christmas stockings
Fill colourful or Christmassy socks with various small items, such as small toys, chocolate coins, sweets, Brussels sprouts, walnuts, satsumas or anything you can get donated or source cheaply. Include a few more valuable prizes to encourage participation. Hang the socks on a mocked-up fireplace and charge people to take turns to have a squeeze and choose an item.
DIY decorations
Buy cut slices of wood with pre-drilled holes for threading and hanging. Provide the children with acrylic pens, glue, glitter and other decorations and let them create seasonal designs. Give each child a piece of string or pretty ribbon to hang their finished ornament for all to see.
Elf on the Shelf trail
The Elf on the Shelf tradition is still going strong, but have you considered switching it up? Encourage visitors to explore your fair by hiding several elves around the site, each holding a letter. Participants who find all the letters must combine them to make a festive word. Those who succeed win a small prize or a token to use on another stall.
Elfridges/Secret Santa shop
Buy a selection of reasonably priced gifts, such as socks, smellies, keyrings and boxes of chocolates, or request donations of similar items – maybe in exchange for a non-uniform day. Lay out the items in different price bands, so children can choose and wrap a gift for a parent or loved one. If children are entering the secret Santa shop without a parent or carer, make sure the volunteers running it are DBS checked.
Festive human fruit machine
Obtain three child-sized boxes and cut holes out at chest height. Place a selection of items inside each box, such as crackers, baubles, carrot (snowman nose), coal and candy canes. Stand one child in each box. At the same time, they must show one of the items. If all three match, the player wins! Make it easier by awarding a prize for two of the same item.
Guess the name of the elf
Buy a giant elf toy and release photos of their mischievous deeds in the run-up to your fair. Create a poster-sized grid with 100 possible names. Ask pupils to pick an elf name and enter their own name and class (or a contact number) on the grid. At the end of the fair, cut the sheet up and put the selected names in a hat. Draw one out to be the winner.
Ho Ho Hole
Paint Santa’s face onto a large sheet of hardboard and cut a hole where his mouth should be. Prop up the board and ask participants to aim small, unbreakable (preferably Christmas-themed) items at his mouth. Ask infants to stand close to the board, juniors further away, and adults at an angle to make it even trickier!
Hook a cracker
Ann Davies, Ridgeway Primary School PTFA, Burntwood, Staffordshire: Buy boxes of crackers when on special offer (or ask for donations). Punch a hole in each one and attach a paper clip formed into a loop. Place the crackers upright in boxes and ask pupils to hook them out using ‘hook a duck’ rods. Participants win a cracker every time!
How many presents are in the stocking?
Fill a stocking with exciting, wrapped Christmas prizes – the kind you would put in a hamper. Display it at your fair and ask visitors to guess how many presents are inside. The winning guess receives the stocking and all its contents. If there are multiple correct guesses, pull one out of a hat.
Knock Santa down the chimney
Stephanie Scott, PC Member, St. Josephs RC Primary, Aberdeen: To make the game, you need a cardboard box painted to look like a brick chimney stack, a large Santa cuddly toy and white soft balls – ideally that look like snowballs. Children are given three ‘snowballs’ to throw at Santa. If they knock him down the chimney, they get a small prize.
Knock the elf off the shelf
Sit three small toy elves on a wooden plank (or shelf) a reasonable distance apart. Give players three attempts to knock them all off. Those who dislodge all three keep the elf of their choice. If they only get one or two, they get a sweet.
Lucky (Lapland) squares
Print a map of Lapland and divide it into squares. Pick a winning square, which will be the secret location where Santa has hidden the presents. Charge £1 to guess which one it is and write down a name and contact number. At the end of the fair, reveal the winner and award a prize.
Money tree
Send brightly coloured envelopes home, requesting parents donate between 20p and £1. Fill an extra envelope with £5 for the main prize and any remaining with chocolate coins. Punch a hole in each one and hang them on a Christmas tree with ribbon. Charge 50p to choose an envelope. Point at them with a wand to avoid cheating.
Nerf the elf
A fun variation of the game Knock the Elf off the Shelf that involves using child-friendly Nerf weapons. Give each player five Nerf darts and task them with shooting the elf off a simple shelf to win a prize. Make the game more interesting by awarding smaller prizes for hitting other targets, such as different types of dolls and action figures.
Penny drop
Carrie Cooper, Great Easton Primary School PTA, Essex: Put a laminated colour picture of Rudolf under a fish tank full of water – Rudolf’s nose should be red and slightly bigger than a £2 coin. Players drop the coin into the tank, and if it lands entirely on Rudolf’s red nose, they double their money. No prizes are needed. Give the stall helper a towel for when they need to fish the money out. This surprisingly tricky game will have adults and kids coming back to play again and again!
Pick a snowman’s nose
Fill a deep tray with sand. Buy around 30 carrots (snowmen’s noses) and paint five of them gold on the tip. Bury the carrots in the sand. Those who pick out a golden-tipped carrot win a prize.
Pin the nose on Rudolph
Natalie Corcoran, Telford Infant School PTA, Leamington Spa: The same idea as Pin the Tail on the Donkey. Ask if anyone in your community can make a big Rudolph face with a bright red nose. Blindfold players and ask them to place their pin on Rudolph’s nose. Those who locate the nose get a prize and everyone else gets a sweet for trying.
Pluck a turkey
Like ‘pick a straw’, but with an added Christmas twist. Make a giant papier-mâché turkey, and, instead of straws, add feathers with coloured spots on the bottom. Each colour represents a different prize.
Rudolph hoopla
Paint Rudolph’s head on a large piece of hardboard and attach tinsel-covered hooks on the antlers. Make hoops out of bent tinsel-covered coat hangers. Participants throw the hoops at the antlers, aiming for the highest hooks, which attract the best prizes.
Snowball putting
This golf-style activity can be either a simple putting game or a more complex miniature golf setup. For the simple version, decorate a box or board as a present or snowman and then make a hole for the golf ball (snowball). If you’re up for a bigger challenge and have the space, create a Christmas-themed mini golf course with assorted imaginative obstacles.
Snowball toss
Decorate a large box or board as Father Christmas or a snowman and cut out a wide, open mouth. Players attempt to throw ‘snowballs’ made from white balls, beanbags or scrunched-up paper into the hole. Award a small prize for every successful throw.
Snowman snap and snowman smash
Paola Armstrong, PTA committee member, St Patrick’s RC school, Shropshire: Ask the children to save plastic bottles from their packed lunches or request donations from parents. Remove the labels and decorate them to look like snowmen: make hats out of the lids and use Sharpie pens for the bodies. Use them for two different games.
Snowman snap: paint the hats in different colours and hide them in some ‘snow’. Those who pull out a pair win a prize.
Snowman smash: set up your snowmen in a ten-pin bowling format. Paint a tennis ball white and roll it down a big tube to see if you can knock down all the snowmen. Award prizes for those who get all ten.
Snowball scavenge
Louise Skitt, Willow Tree Primary School PTFA, Harrogate: Fill a paddling pool full of shredded paper or discarded packaging and hide snowballs (ping pong balls) amongst the paper. Children win a lolly each time they find one or a bigger prize if they locate a ball with the words ‘ho ho ho’ written on it. The younger children love this game.
Splat the present
Carolyn Sparks, vice-chair, Friends of Southover School, Lewes: Re-purpose Splat the Rat as a Christmas fair game. Turn your drainpipe into a chimney complete with Santa at the top, and launch presents down it for the children to whack. Older children might prefer to splat an elf or even Santa himself.
Treasure hunt
Encourage visitors to scour every stall at your fair by holding a treasure hunt. Display festive icons around the site and invite children to find them all. Participants pay for a form and fill in the name of the stall where they found each icon. Award prizes for all completed forms.
Where in the world is Santa?
Display close-up photos of well-known landmarks from different countries and challenge players to identify the locations. Award prizes to those who guess them all.
What’s in the stocking?
Sarah Ellis, Friends of Garvestone Community Primary School, Norwich: Hang some distinctive, colourful socks on a line and put a small item such as a marble, comb or penny into each one. Create a form with a description of each sock and spaces for each participant’s name and telephone number. Players must guess what’s in each sock and write it down. The winner is the person that gets them all right. Pull names out of a hat if there’s more than one winner.
Wildlife-friendly reindeer food
Sprinkling reindeer food for Rudolph on Christmas Eve is a lovely tradition for many families. Ensure they’re doing it responsibly by selling eco-friendly reindeer food. Even products labelled as edible, such as edible glitter, can be dangerous to wildlife, so use a recipe from a reputable source, such as those from the RSPCA. Or give the birds a secret treat by selling pre-packaged bird food mixes like these from the RSPB as reindeer food – who’s to say Rudy doesn’t love a sunflower seed? Buy in bulk and divide into bags with ribbons and a tag. Be aware of nuts in pre-mixed products if yours is a nut-free school.
Wine or water?
Make a festive variation of the crowd-pleasing summer fair game. Gather a selection of full and empty bottles, including popular Christmas drinks such as mulled wine or Baileys. Fill the empty bottles with water and cover each with a paper bag. Players select a bag at random and win the contents. For a twist, ask your local supermarket to donate unusual festive-themed cordials, sauces or oils and include those in the game.
NOTE: Provided that you are playing a stand-alone game held on the day of the event only, none of the games listed above will require licences.
How to maximise profits
- Offer a variety of games at your fair to encourage visitors to stay – and keep spending their money – for longer.
- Encourage participants to play more games by offering multiple turns, ie 50p a go or three for £1.
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