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Last updated: December 14, 2023 by Daniela
With 14 different religious holidays in December alone, and more events to come, you might be looking for creative ways to make extra money for the holidays.
Family gatherings and holiday parties aren’t cheap, especially if you’re expected to give gifts to several people. Add in grocery shopping, decorations, and even trips to see relatives, and you might end up with a pretty hefty bill to plan for.
If you have children, you want them to have the best memories of the holiday. Those memories can include gifts.
If the gift is too expensive to plan, we recommend talking to family and friends. Suggest a Secret Santa or gift exchange to keep costs to a minimum. Or discuss with your family the idea of celebrating without gifts.
Either way, trying to save for this opportunity can be difficult. Here are some options for increasing your income with a side hustle this holiday season.
6 ways to make extra money during the holiday season
In this article, we didn’t touch on options like making money with your blog, selling digital products, or doing paid surveys. While these are all great options, they may not always raise the amount you need in a timely manner.
Still, that doesn’t preclude you from exploring other income options you’d like to build up well past your vacation.
Let’s take a closer look at the 6 easiest ways to make money this holiday season.
1. Get paid to take care of your pet
If you love pets, use apps like Rover to make extra money.
Demand for pet sitters spikes in November and December as more people travel to visit family during the holidays.
The more people travel, the more pets are left behind and needing care during that time. Also, for people who don’t plan on leaving town but need more time to spend time with family or host events, they’ll likely need people to help care for their fur babies. A walking visit or several drop-in visits may be required, which is also a service that can be done through the app.
Read our Rover review for more information.
2. Earn extra money with gig apps
If you have time to earn some extra money by working a few gigs each week, try gig apps as a temporary side hustle during your holidays.
Some live apps to download and try:
- Instacart: Sign up to have your groceries delivered or become your shopper if you don’t have a car. This is a great way to make some extra cash during the holidays, when many people rent holiday shopping.
- Shobler: Get paid to plow or shovel snow for other people.
- DoorDash: Sign up to deliver restaurant orders to people.
- Hyrecar: Rent a car using this app.
- Useful: Look for jobs in areas such as carpentry, furniture assembly, decorating, and cleaning.
- TaskRabbit: Perform tasks for others such as cleaning, decorating, hanging holiday lights, repairing, painting, etc.
Related: 15 side hustle apps to earn extra income
3. Use your skills to become a freelancer
Think about the skills you have, such as writing, graphic design, or web development.
In fact, there are ways to monetize your skillsets by reaching out to small businesses and online creators who might need them (especially during busy seasons like the holidays).
Here are some places you can start looking for freelance work.
Check out this complete guide on how to get started as a freelance writer.
Pro tip: Another option is to work as a freelance proofreader and proofread other people’s books, articles, courses, and even social media posts. You can get started with this free training.
4. Sell your products online
You can also earn extra cash by selling products online. These items could be past gifts you didn’t want or ended up using, or other items you already have but no longer need or want.
The easiest platform to sell products quickly (in my experience) is Facebook Marketplace. You can sell your products locally and arrange for pickup, or you can sell to anyone, regardless of location, and have your products shipped through the app. The app integrates tools like PayPal and secure payment tools to make payments instantly.
Keep in mind that Facebook Marketplace has a haggling culture, so some people may try to haggle with you.
Other platforms to consider when selling or reselling products online:
- eBay: Great for electronics and collectibles.
- ThredUp: Perfect for selling clothing. Anything that the platform doesn’t sell can be recycled.
- Poshmark: Great for designer brands and accessories.
- Mercari: Great for household items, kitchen items, and children’s toys.
Check out 9 selling apps to sell your products online.
5. Become a part-time remote virtual assistant
If you’re social media savvy, like organizing for others, or like doing technical things, use your free time on the weekends to work as a virtual assistant and get ready for the holidays. You can save money. You can find jobs by reaching out to small businesses on social media or by looking for Facebook groups that post virtual assistant jobs.
Here are some places that are hiring VAs:
- People searching Facebook groups using keywords like “virtual assistant” or specializations like “social media manager,” “content manager,” or “proofreader” and posting that they’re looking for a virtual assistant. Explore and build relationships with others. virtual assistant.
- Fancy Hands (Use it first, but don’t pay enough to keep working – use it as a starter experience)
- Talent.Hubstaff.com
- delegated
Related: 11 Best High-Paying Side Jobs for Introverts
7. Find part-time seasonal work
If you want a more stable source of extra income this holiday season, you may want to consider part-time seasonal work in your area. Depending on your schedule, you may earn additional hours during night shifts, weekend shifts, and holiday shifts.
This is something like this:
- Seasonal customer service jobs (including remote jobs)
- seasonal retail jobs
- snow removal
- holiday decorations
- Holiday events such as light displays, Santa rallies, and parades
Companies hiring for seasonal jobs:
- the goal
- grocery store
- mall
- godiva
- nordstrom
- wayfair
Job sites used to find seasonal jobs:
- CoolWorks: Find seasonal jobs in various categories.
- SeasonWorkers: Find seasonal winter jobs in hospitality, ski resorts, childcare, and more.
- SnagAJob: Search seasonal hourly jobs.
- PeopleReady: Find seasonal jobs in seasonal retail, manufacturing, distribution, warehousing, hospitality, hotels, events, and more.
You can also browse part-time and seasonal jobs on our list of remote job sites.
bonus cash opportunity
There are other ways to make some cash this holiday season, as there are various ways to take on extra jobs to earn an additional source of income.
These easy hacks will help you save a few extra bucks.
You may not get much, but if you add up, you will get great results.
Happy Holidays❄
As you look through this list and consider all possibilities, don’t get caught up in comparing different options for too long. Pick the one that resonates with you the most and give it a try.
Which one would you like to try? Let us know in the comments.
Happy wandering and happy holidays!
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Daniella is the creator and author of iliketodabble.com. When she and her wife Alexandra are not traveling the world or playing with their seven or more animals, they are dabbling and working toward a future of financial freedom.