5 Holiday Side Hustles To Make Extra Money That You Probably Never Considered
The holidays are coming, and everyone is looking for additional ways to make money.
Finding a second job during the holidays isn’t hard, especially with companies like Amazon, Target, and Walmart hiring thousands of workers to work for the next few months but holiday side hustles are a more popular option. Especially for people with a little extra time to spare during the busiest and most stressful time of the year.
More than a few articles about side hustles during Christmas will start popping up online, but here’s a spoiler about every single blog post and YouTube video. Every piece will suggest the same ideas for a side gig and most are jobs you’ve already thought about and probably decided against.
What you need is a holiday side hustle to make extra money that few people stop to consider.
All of these holiday side hustles have one thing in common – all five side gigs help people free up their time, reduce stress during the holidays, and eliminate time-consuming tasks from an already busy time of year.
Here are some holiday side hustles that might turn into a lucrative business idea every year.
Party Planning
This holiday season will likely be packed with countless parties and social gatherings, with more and more people getting comfortable being in bigger groups.
People love hosting a part but preparing for the party is a part-time job. A perfect holiday side hustle involves helping people plan a party, such as emailing or mailing invitations, getting all of the necessary supplies like cups, plates, plastic utensils, decorations, and even entertainment, and coordinating the food with a restaurant or catering company.
This idea popped up in a recent post about high-paying side hustles for people over 50. It’s a smart side business idea that’s relatively easy to do, especially for people who are naturally good at planning and hosting parties.
We suggest putting out feelers to people now on social media or friend groups.
HOW MUCH TO CHARGE: The average party planner makes about $20-per-hour.
Outdoor Decorating
Do you love decorating your house for the holidays? Millions of people will cover their front yards, trees, bushes, and homes with Christmas lights. All of those people make outdoor decorating a no-brainer side business idea.
You can even double up on the business potential by charging to take down all of the lights and decorations once the holiday is over unless the customer is one of those “lights up until June” types of people.
HOW MUCH TO CHARGE: This article explains that professional lighting companies charge $120-500 just for labor, and the individual rate can be anywhere from $60-$100.
Gift Shopping
People love getting gifts, but most people hate the hassle of shopping for gifts during the holidays. During the holidays, a unique side hustle idea involves helping people cross as many names off of their shopping lists as possible.
Now, customers are probably unwilling to put you in charge of buying gifts for their spouse or kids, but those are typically easier people to shop for, so your side hustle should specialize in buying gifts for the secondary people in their lives. People like co-workers, teachers, and the trainer at the gym, to name a few.
This side hustle is perfect during the holidays because you can work for several different clients simultaneously.
HOW MUCH TO CHARGE: A personal shopper makes about $36K-per-year, which could work out to about $20-per-hour.
Gift Wrapping
Are you good at wrapping gifts? You’re one of the chosen few, or you’ve just done it enough. Most people stink at wrapping presents and save all the wrapping until the last minute.
That’s your opportunity to offer gift-wrapping services (priced by the hour) to complete all of the hours of wrapping involved with the holidays.
Another great thing about this side hustle is that you don’t have to be good at gift wrapping. You can take the gifts to the mall, get them wrapped by experts for cheap, and charge a little more for your service.
Work smarter, not harder.
HOW MUCH TO CHARGE: Pricing out how much to charge for this holiday side hustle depends on your skill level and the type of packages you’ll be wrapping. This article breaks down how much to charge for wrapping presents and offers a pricing scale depending on the size of the box. Larger boxes can go for $20 a pop!
Baked Goods
I’ve seen this holiday side hustle work in real life, and the idea can transfer over to other holidays if your baking skills are on point.
I had a friend who ran a holiday side hustle every Christmas by turning her kitchen into a bakery. She offered people four different kinds of cookies, custom wrapping in Christmas tins, and would even drop them off at customers’ houses or deliver them to people on behalf of the customer (this was an additional charge).
She only took as many jobs as she could handle, baked after her kids went to bed or while they were at school, and the business spread thanks to word-of-mouth.
HOW MUCH TO CHARGE: Pricing varies depending on the types of cookies and ingredients, but this helpful article will help you figure out how much to charge.
BONUS SIDE HUSTLE IDEA: Toy Assembly
The final – and bonus – of our holiday side hustles is a business idea that pops into my head the week before Christmas every single year. My family had the tradition of opening and assembling gifts before Christmas morning. So, instead of unwrapping presents and spending all morning putting together toys, bikes, and other gifts, the kids can start playing with the toys immediately.
Without fail, every December 24th, I was struggling with nuts, bolts, finding batteries that weren’t included, assembling toys with little to no instructions, and cursing out loud.
Many parents would gladly pay someone else to assemble the toys before Christmas plus store the toys until Christmas Eve to snooping kids can’t ruin the surprise of Christmas morning.
HOW MUCH TO CHARGE: Hourly would be the best idea.