Christmas Party

[Guest]

I would be grateful for some advice. The topic of the children's Christmas Party came up at our last committee meeting and we were unable to come to a conclusion.

Our Christmas party took place during a 'paid' morning session. This meant that children who did not usually attend on that day had to pay for an extra session so they could go to the party but the children who attended on that day would be at the party anyway. It was questioned that this was not fair on the children who had to pay extra to come to the party as this might exclude some children from coming (£10.50 for a party isn't cheap!). I am interested how other nurseries overcome this issue.

Thanks

[Guest]

Children who attend the party on a day that they don't normally attend nursery have to have an adult stay with them. They are the sole responsibility of the person who brought them and only stay for the duration of the party.

 

We don't make any charge for the party, neither do we ask for food and we provide the presents, (set of books from the Book People usually £9.99 for 10 - bargain!)

[AnonyMouse_13453]

We don't charge at all for party, children who would be having that session as an entitlement session are offered another session that week. This is because we don't want to EYFS plan for the session!

[AnonyMouse_3139]

We have a party day where all the children are invited for a donation of £3.00. This goes towards paying for an enterainer. We put a list up of the food we'd like donated and parents put their name next to the item(s) they'll bring. Things like sausage rolls, crisps, biscuits, cake. We provide the drinks and some committee members made sandwiches.

The adults include staff, committee members and maybe one or two parents who we think might help their child to settle as its such a different session.

We buy books from the bookclub and give these out at the end, usually father christmas does it but this year we couldnt get one.

[AnonyMouse_390]

We have 3 Christmas parties, we start out session normally then start the festivities about 11 - yes some children come to more than one but its always worked for us. We finish our party by singing to parents, friends and relatives our Christmas songs at 2-15. If there are any children who don't come on party days they come at 11. Also if parents can't come to the singing they are welcome to bring them on a day they can make. We do ask for party food donations, and this year they all had sticker books for presents and reindeer food

[AnonyMouse_3735]

we used to have ours on a non funded day didn't want to plan anything, and we had children only for the party time so we could set up and clear without children around. ...

By doing this we could charge same fee for all , which paid for the entertainer, food was same as Rea, list for parents, we provided drink and gift and Santa..

all staff came in , occasionally a parent stayed to support their child , most had younger children it didn't often happen, but we found the children had usually all settled and become close to one of the staff by then so were happy to stay . parents warned us about those not liking Santa and we ensured they were near an adult at the appropriate time and supported well.

[AnonyMouse_8623]

All of the children in our setting pay £5 even if they normally attend the session in which the party is held. Their £5 gets them an entertainer, a present, food and overtime for staff to supervise.

 

Parents can stay if they wish but we usually have enough staff for legal ratios.

[AnonyMouse_19782]

I am not committee run, I do not charge any extra for the party, any child that would not normally attend on the party day attends without charge, I do not request any food etc. However, we don't have an entertainer but they do have presents paid for by me. It is a funded session still.

[AnonyMouse_1999]

We have our party on the day after the 'official' end of term. This year term ended on weds 15th and we had the party on 16th for all children.

There is no charge to parents, no requests for food or anything else. The party was from 10-3 and lunch provided, entertainer for an hour, a visit from FC with present for each child - it was a great day. The owner finances the cost and staff give their time for free - small preschool and just the way we have always done it and it works for us.

[AnonyMouse_8466]

I am not committee run, I do not charge any extra for the party, any child that would not normally attend on the party day attends without charge, I do not request any food etc. However, we don't have an entertainer but they do have presents paid for by me. It is a funded session still.

Exactly the same as me Panders, except I do ask parents to provide a wrapped gift to the value of £5 for Father Christmas to give to their child (and any other siblings or minded children who attend etc). We are never ever ever over our legal ratios so that wouldn't be an issue, however most parents attend with their children anyway.

[AnonyMouse_13457]

We run party after term ends. All pay £3.50 for entertainer, sausage and chip lunch + jelly, cake etc. Father Christmas visit with Sweet tube + book from Book people. All staff in, no parents stay. Mainly funded by Christmas Hamper raffle with hampers made up of donations from parents who buy the tickets! This pays all staff to attend with setup and clear away time allowed. We usually clear away all Christmas decorations etc and give room a thorough clean to deglitter it!

I wish everyone a very Happy Christmas and all the best for 2011.

korkycat

[AnonyMouse_11653]

All the children are invited and all I ask is for a £2 donation from children who are not normally in on that day, this goes towards extra staff and I pay for all the food/presents/entertainer. We are a private setting though and just found that this works best for us.

 

Kris

[AnonyMouse_1469]

we run as a normal seesion, in that it is a funded day, but do not charge for children who would not usually be in. we provide the food, the gift and the entertainer. At my previous setting, the committee used to ask the parents to provide a wrapped gift for their child and it was a nightmare......................some parents could ill afford it, so we found their child might be absent on the day, or worse still, they had 'forgotten' a present ( I had one year where I was scrabbling round in a frenzy, trying to find a small something in our toy cupboard that i could wrap up!.....) and of course, 'Cynthia' ALWAYS spent 4 or 5 times what we'd asked,so her child had a fabulous gift, making everyone else envious.so, we changed the system and allocated money from the christmas bazaar for gifts instead.

[Guest]

Thank you for all of your responses, this really helps.