How to Make Money This Holiday Season

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

a desire to make money this holiday season
transportation
a computer and internet connection
time and energy to job hunt

Step 1

Christmas shopping

Let's start with some obvious job opportunities that are available during the holiday season. Retail establishments are hiring extra help just for the holidays, so put your application in now for a sales job. Stores need extra help from Thanksgiving through the New Year usually. If you have a regular job, perhaps you could work a few weekends this year. Not everyone likes to work on Saturday and Sunday so anyone who can work those days is in demand. To find a holiday job in retail, try newspaper classified ads, and internet databases, as well as your areas employment department, and craigslist job openings section. A good internet resource is workinretail.com.
Step 2

Santa

You might want to work as a Santa, or Santa's helper too. Call temporary work agencies, your local employment agencies, and the stores themselves, to find available openings. You could also find work as a bell ringer for the Salvation Army. Part of these positions are paid positions and part are for volunteer workers. Contact the Salvation Army about a job this holiday.
Step 3

christmas trees

Another possibility is selling Christmas trees on one of the Christmas tree lots in your area. These jobs are often offered through the employment department in your area, through temporary job agencies, and through listings on craigslist, among others places. Often a person working on the Christmas tree lot has a small trailer or motor home to stay in while working there, so many times RV'ers are offered these jobs. Don't let that stop you from trying to get a job on a Christmas tree lot though.
Step 4

help a caterer

Sign up at one of the "labor ready" agencies, for temporary holiday jobs. There are all sorts of jobs available, from security, to hospitality and catering work, to retail positions, to working at ski resorts or holiday destinations, and much more. Sign up also as a temp worker, at one of the temporary agencies. These are places where you might work one day or several weeks, or even months at one job.
Step 5

Christmas candles

Sell your crafts, gift items, or food products for the holidays. Home crafted candles sell well, as do other one-of-a-kind craft items that are well-made, like homemade bath salts and lip gloss, personalized fleece blankets, and unique holiday gift baskets that you've put together.
Step 6

Christmas time

You could also make money this holiday season by offering your services. Perhaps you'd like to work as a house cleaner before holiday parties, or a party helper, gift wrapper, errand runner, gift shopper, or baking holiday goodies for those who aren't able to, or stringing holiday lights, shoveling walkways and driveways, babysitting for party nights, or as a grocery shopper, and anything else people want done for the holidays but don't want to do, or have time to do, themselves. Last year, some people I knew made a lot of money by advertising their services as a spend-the-night babysitting haven for New Years Eve. Parents could drop off their children for the night at their house, knowing they'd be safe, before heading off to their own New Years eve celebrations. There were enough responsible, reliable, adults to care for all the children, and they planned plenty of activities and foods for the evening and the following morning. The children were picked up the next morning, and my friends were paid handsomely for taking such good care of the kids overnight.
Step 7

Holiday time

Another possibility for holiday work is through UPS, FedEx, DHL, and the post office. All these organizations hire extra help around the holidays, so check them out to find jobs.
Step 8

catering jobs are fun

Check out hospitality jobs too; caterers need extra help during the holiday season, as do restaurants and hotels. Find these jobs online, through job databases, or check craigslist and the newspaper classified ads. Or go directly to the caterers or hotels or restaurants and ask them for a job.