The Final Push: What I'm Buying for Our 2026 School Holiday Shop (With Links!)

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We are officially in the final push of ordering for our 2026 school holiday shop!

If you're new here, our PTO runs its own holiday shop for more than 1,300 elementary students. We buy every gift ourselves, set our own prices, and run the whole thing with volunteers. I shared our entire process, including our free inventory spreadsheet, in How We Run Our Own School Holiday Shop for 1,300+ Kids.

A lot of you are shopping for your own holiday shops right now, so I wanted to give you a real-time look at where we are, what I've bought since I shared that post, and what's still left on my list.

Where Our Inventory Stands Right Now

When I shared our sample inventory spreadsheet in early October, our 2026 inventory was worth about $32,000 at our selling prices.

As of today, we're just shy of $50,000!

That works out to an average cost of about 97 cents per item, with an average selling price of about $4.78.

For context, last year our holiday shop brought in $48,616 in sales, and we wanted more choices left for our final classes. So this year, my goal is to start shop week with at least $60,000 in inventory at our selling prices.

And because we're opening on a Thursday this year, I'll have two days of real sales data before the weekend. If any categories or price points are selling faster than expected, I plan to place Amazon orders to bring us up to about $65,000 for the rest of the week.

How I'm Keeping Our Costs So Low

If you look at our spreadsheet, some of our Temu costs might look almost too good to be true. Some items even show a cost of $0!

Here's how that happened:

• I've done Temu's Win Credit and Claim Credit promotions multiple times.
• I've requested price adjustments whenever something I ordered dropped in price.
• I've received a couple of late shipment credits.
• Then I rolled those credits forward and combined them with coupons on future orders.

During the promotions, I mostly ordered items sold in bulk, since that's where I got the biggest bang for my buck. Now I'm using the credits and coupons I've built up to order multiple pieces of individual items.

Our spreadsheet records what we actually paid after all of those credits and coupons, which is why some costs are so low. So you may not see the same price when you click through. I explain exactly how each of these promotions works, and how I stack them, in The Temu Playbook I’m Leaving My PTO: How to Actually Save Money on Temu.

What's Still on My List

Blankets, and lots of them. I need at least 100 more blankets, and honestly probably closer to 200. Blankets are always one of our best sellers for Mom and Grandma.

If I don't find something better before then, I can almost always get blankets for $5 or less on Black Friday at stores like Aldi, Kroger, At Home, and Academy Sports.

Ulta on Cyber Monday. We usually buy a lot of $1 items from Ulta on Cyber Monday. Beauty and personal care gifts are always popular with our shoppers, and it's a great way to fill our lower price points.

Amazon, if needed. After our first two days of shopping, I'll check our sales by price point and category and fill any gaps with quick Amazon orders.

Everything I've Bought Since October

Here are the items from our online orders that we've added since I shared our first post, grouped the way we group them in our spreadsheet, with the price we'll sell each one for in our shop.

I'm still working on a few more Temu and Amazon orders, too. I'll add them to this list as they arrive and I confirm the quality matches my expectations.

For Mom & Grandma

• Christmas cutting board, towel, and utensil gift sets: $12
• Rosemary hair care gift sets: $12
• Wireless sleep headphones: $12
• "Mommin'" and game day hats: $10
• Checkered throw blankets: $10
• "Mama" glass cups: $8
• "Mama" wallets: $8
• Glass cups with wood lids (appreciation): $8
• Skinny tapered stainless steel tumblers: $8
• Striped aprons: $8
• Beaded "Mama" wristlets: $7
• Black fanny packs: $7
• "Girl who loves Alabama" bags: $6
• "Mama" butterfly acrylic decor: $6
• Cross silicone beaded wristlets: $6
• Flower coffee cups: $6
• Leopard print wallets: $6
• Wood beaded wristlets: $6
• "Mama" necklaces: $5
• "Mom" necklaces: $5
• 3D bear fuzzy socks: $5
• Alabama earrings: $5
• Book lover tote bags: $5
• Manicure kits: $5
• Paw print earrings (several styles): $5
• Appreciation compact mirrors: $4
• Book-themed coffee sleeves: $4
• Christmas fuzzy socks: $4
• Glittery compact mirrors: $4
• Touchscreen gloves: $4
• Tree of life bracelets: $4
• Boxed snowflake and gingerbread bar soaps: $3
• Travel angels: $3
• White vintage picture frames: $3
• Women's assorted bracelets: $3
• Christmas hand and foot masks: $2
• Gold flower brooches: $2
• Mini animal appreciation boxes: $2

For Dad & Grandpa

• "Best Dad Ever" hats: $10
• "Best Dad in the Galaxy" hats: $10
• "Dada, Daddy, Dad, Bruh" hats: $10
• "Top Dad" hats: $10
• Beard kits: $10
• Blue dad hats: $10
• Compact wireless speakers: $10
• Dad leather patch hats: $10
• Desktop cube clocks: $10
• Mini portable speakers (red or black): $10
• Shoe cleaning kits: $10
• "Grandpa, my love is immeasurable" tape measure sets: $8
• "King of BBQ" aprons: $8
• Chest pocket bags: $8
• Dad joke book, Yuletide edition: $8
• Dad joke buttons: $8
• Golf ball holder bags, which we fill with 3 golf balls we found on clearance at Target: $8
• Men's watches: $8
• "Best Grandpa Ever" tape measure: $6
• Clip-on hat headlamps: $6
• Dad grill tools: $6
• Packable bucket hats: $6
• "I love you, Dad" figurines: $5
• Car cleaning slime (we bought 12-packs and sell each one individually): $5
• Christmas neckties: $5
• Dad joke card decks: $5
• Men's sunglasses: $5
• Men's wallets: $5
• Flag braided cord bracelets: $4
• Fishing socks: $4
• Football bottle openers: $4
• Frog fishing lures (50 pack): $3
• Grandpa tool pen sets: $3
• Thumbs-up phone stands: $3
• Keychain flashlights: $2
• Tool pens: $2

For Girls

• Cheer jewelry boxes: $8
• Softball jewelry boxes: $8
• Selfie sticks: $7
• Clear makeup bags (we add patches): $6
• Cheer gift bags (nail file, chapstick, and lotion): $5
• Dumpling plush: $5
• Sequin purses: $5
• Unicorn squishies: $5
• Body mist: $4
• 4-key clickies: $3
• Christmas character lip gloss tubes: $3
• Drink cup lip gloss: $3
• Diamond gem pens: $2
• Dumpling fidget keychains: $2
• Pink bow cherry lip balm holders, which we fill with these lip balms: $2
• Single key clickies: $2

For Boys

• Toilet launch game: $8
• Baseball braided rope necklaces: $5
• Baseball drip arm sleeves: $4
• Whoopee cushions: $4
• 3D printed dragons: $3
• Baseball drip headbands: $3

For Kids (Including Lots of Squishies!)

• Find the imposter game: $10
• Guess the word board game: $10
• Color bottle guessing game: $8
• Light-up Christmas beanies for kids: $8
• Memory game: $8
• Mini "don't say it" word game: $8
• Bread squishies: we sell the larger ones for $8 and the smaller ones for $4
• Family charades game: $6
• Christmas squishies: $5
• Squishy ball 3-pack bundles: $5
• Taba squishies, large: $5
• Gumdrop squishies, 1.8 inch: $4
• Ice cream drip fans: $4
• Burger squishies: $3
• Crystal mine jewel putty: $3
• Gumdrop squishies, 1.57 inch: $3
• Mochi cube blind bags: $3
• Watermelon squishies: $3
• Water snakes: $3
• Christmas mochi squishy blind bags: $2
• Color-changing Christmas pens: $2
• Magic snow packets: $2
• Mood rings: $2
• Squishy balls: $2
• Squishy balls (another variety): $2
• Taba squishies, small: $2
• Under the sea pop fidget blind bags: $2

For Teachers

• Teacher lanyards: $6
• Teacher zippered bags: $3
• Pencil lip balm holders, which we fill with these lip balms: $2
• Teacher ballpoint pen sets: $2
• Teacher bracelets: $2
• Teacher earrings: $2

For Pets

• Large dog rope toys: $5
• Cat ribbon wands: $4
• Hamster hideouts and toys: $4
• Individually wrapped Christmas dog cookies (set 1, set 2): we buy the sets and sell 1 cookie for $2

Local Clearance and Wholesale Finds

Not everything comes from Temu and Amazon! We've also been checking the clearance sections at our local stores every chance we get, and we've found some great deals for our shop.

We've also placed several wholesale orders from Accessories Palace, especially for squishies. Their inventory changes every week, so check back often to see what's new.

Stay Tuned!

We're in the home stretch, and I'll keep adding to this post as I shop over the next few weeks, including our Black Friday blanket haul and our Cyber Monday Ulta order. Check back to see what else ends up in our holiday shop this year!

And if you haven't grabbed it yet, you can download our free sample inventory spreadsheet and a blank template to track your own shop.

This post may contain affiliate links. If you purchase through one of my links, I may earn a small commission at no additional cost to you. Thank you for supporting my blog and allowing me to continue sharing projects and ideas!

MagpieTayleetot is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com. All items used in this tutorial were purchased by me and I did not receive anything in exchange for this post.