26 of the Best Ways to Make Extra Money for Christmas

Learn the best ways to make extra money for Christmas this year.

Do you have a lot of people on your Christmas list this year, and you want to buy presents for everyone but don’t know where the money will come from?

The holiday season is fast approaching. Have you been wondering how to make money for Christmas? Everyone can use some extra cash for holiday expenses because we’re all spending money on Christmas presents.

But maybe you’re tired of putting Christmas on credit cards every year and ready to find other ways to get money for holiday shopping. It might be something you say every year after Christmas, but damn it, this year, you mean it! 

Well, you’ll love this blog post because I’m showing you many ways you can make extra money for Christmas this year.

How to Make Extra Money for Christmas

Here’s a list of great ways to make extra cash for Christmas or any other time of year, for that matter. 

1. Test Websites

Websites and apps are always looking for people to test them. I know it sounds like a long shot, but believe me, if you put in an application or two and get accepted, then you’ll have money coming in.

You’ll be surprised how many people are willing to pay you just to give their app or website feedback. But you won’t be able to make a full-time income doing this. It’s a way to make some quick cash every once in a while when you have some spare time.

2. Fill Out Surveys Online

Online surveys are a great way to make money to cover holiday expenses, and you don’t even have to leave your house!

Many websites offer surveys for people willing to answer questions about their opinions on products they’ve either used or had exposure to. 

Some companies will pay you up to $20 for each survey you fill out.

The best part is that these surveys are usually short and easy to do.

You can make money studying something you already know about since most ask about your preferences in food, clothing, beauty products, etc.

Best Websites That Pay You For Surveys:

• Swagbucks
• Survey Junkie
• Pinecone Research
• Global Test Market

3. Deliver Food for Doordash or Grub Hub

Driving around town delivering food for restaurants might not seem like the most glamorous way to earn money, but it actually pays pretty well.

You can get paid $18-22 per hour, depending on which city you’re in. And that’s just base pay–you’ll also earn tips from customers!

Restaurants are always looking for delivery drivers because it’s a way to get their food delivered without paying someone else. Plus, more people order food during the festive season of Christmas.

Driving from restaurant to restaurant can be time-consuming and stressful, but the benefits outweigh that: you’ll make money with each order!

So if driving around town sounds like something you’re up for, then this is one of the best ways to make extra money for Christmas.

All of the necessary information about each store’s requirements is on their websites. You’ll need a driver’s license (and maybe insurance), so before applying, do your research about local requirements in your state.

Best Websites for Food Delivery:

• DoorDash (this one’s my favorite)
• Grub Hub
• UberEATS  
• Postmates 

4. Drive for Lyft or Uber

It’s a common misconception that you need to be in the car all day long when working for Uber or Lyft.

In reality, both of these companies have an option where you can just use your car as needed, or you can work at specific times that work for you, like in the evening after your day job.

So, if you have a car and want to make some extra money to cover Christmas expenses, then being an Uber or Lyft driver may be perfect for you.

5. Sell Your Crafts on Etsy

Etsy is a great place for crafters of all levels to sell their goods. If you love making handmade items or even printables like coloring pages, this may be the perfect way to make extra income for Christmas.

Homemade crafts make great holiday gifts and are often very popular items to sell on a website like Etsy.

It’s also a great way to begin selling if you’re just starting as an artist or crafter because Etsy provides plenty of resources that help you build your brand and get more exposure as well.

One of the best ways to make holiday cash for Christmas is by selling handmade crafts on Etsy.

Etsy has an excellent tutorial that walks you through listing products, what goes in an item listing, etc.  And if you need any other help, there are tons of forums where other sellers can help you out.

6. Sell Things You Don’t Need on Facebook Marketplace

If you have clothes or other items in good condition but just not your style anymore, then Facebook Marketplace might be the perfect place to sell them.

You can post a picture of what you’re selling and set a price. If someone is interested, they’ll message you privately with their offer.

Facebook Marketplace has become one of my favorite ways to make extra money for Christmas because you can sell anything, and it’s free. When I needed to move, I sold old clothes, a sofa, and even a dining room table set to get the money for the down deposit.

You don’t need an account or payment system, so if you have unwanted things sitting around your house that are worth something, this is a great way to get rid of them.  Plus, there will be less clutter in your home which always feels good after the holidays!

7. Teach English

Teaching English online is a great way to make some money from home, and it’s one of the best ways to make extra cash for Christmas. It’s easy to sign up at places like VIPKid, and it’s the perfect place to work if you have a teaching certificate and/or teaching experience.

But don’t worry, even if you don’t have teaching experience, there are still places you can teach English as a second language. It’s a great way to make extra income for presents this holiday season.

Best Websites for Teaching English Online:

• Cambly
• VIPKid
• QKids
• SayABC

8. Become a Freelance Writer

Becoming a freelance writer is another great way to make some holiday cash at Christmas. It happens to be my favorite freelancing job and also one of the easiest for beginners to get into.

You can write blog articles for other businesses like I do or different types of writing projects like white papers, case studies, magazine articles, and more. 

Freelance blogging is one of the best jobs for bloggers to make extra money because they already know how to write blog articles. It’s the perfect ghostwriting job because you simply write in the voice of your clients.

Other articles you may be interested in:

How to Be a Ghostwriter and Make Serious Money

How to Start a Freelance Business With No Money

28 of the Best Websites to Find Freelance Writing Jobs for Beginners

9. Start a Virtual Assistant Business

Starting a virtual assistant business is one of the best ways to make extra income each month. You can do everything from scheduling appointments, organizing customer email inboxes, creating schedules for people who need help with personal organization, and so much more.

It’s an excellent way to start making extra cash because you’re not limited in what you can offer your clients. You can even focus on general virtual assistant work or only provide a select few services like social media marketing, bookkeeping, or writing blog content for business.

You can do one-off projects or take on retainer clients that you help each month.

10. Flip Things Online

One of the best ways to make money fast is by flipping things online. Buy stuff for a low price and then flip the items online to earn cash to make a profit.

There are plenty of sites that will allow you to buy and sell clothing, furniture, jewelry, collectibles like baseball cards, or antique coins – just about anything.

Websites like eBay make it easy to sell unwanted items, just like I mentioned with Facebook Marketplace earlier. However, with eBay, you have a store, and you want to get good ratings because that is one of the ways eBay sellers attract good clients.

Facebook Marketplace is more for people that want to sell clothing and furniture without having a storefront. On eBay, you have a storefront, and you have a choice to list items in an auction format or buy now.

11. Start a Blog

While this isn’t a way to get quick cash, starting a blog can bring in some holiday cash over time, which is primarily passive. There is a lot of hard work initially, but as SEO starts working and you have 50 – 100+ blog posts, you can work less on creating content and start making products to sell.

If you start it this year, you could be making $1000 a month of steady income by next Spring. Blogging has a steep learning curve as there is so much to learn, like SEO, writing helpful content, affiliate marketing, creating products, marketing, social media, and more.

But once you learn how to come up with content ideas and write blog posts that rank on Google using the right SEO tools and how to create awesome content, you can start making a passive income stream.

11. Create an Online Course

Creating an online course is one of the best ways to make extra money quickly. If you’re a blogger who already has eBooks or classes, you can put on a quick flash sale and make thousands of dollars in a few days.

But if you’re looking for ways to make quick money and reading this post, you likely don’t have a lot of experience in this area. The good thing is that plenty of people have made a living from creating courses, so I would be willing to say that this can work for you too.

If you have expertise in your field, you should definitely think about creating a course that teaches what you know. You don’t have to have a blog to do this.

All you need to do is use online tools like Udemy, Pluralsight, Skillshare, or Teachable to create a course. Or use Kindle Direct Publishing to publish an eBook for passive income each month.

13. Become a Pet Sitter or Dog Walker

Everyone needs a dog walker or pet sitter from time to time. If you love animals and are looking for a way to make some more money, this may be the perfect side hustle for you.

You can make good money walking dogs or pet sitting birds, cats, and other animals while people are out of town or at work. You can start your own pet sitting business or sign up on websites like 

• Fetch! Pet Care
• Rover
• PetSit
• Care.com
• PetSitters.org

14. Start a Side Hustle

When you want to make more money during the busy festive season, you can work from home as a seasonal worker. Some companies hire workers for customer service positions just during the holidays.

You can also start a side hustle like becoming an online tutor, selling items on Amazon or eBay, giving makeovers, and styling services to friends and family.

If you love to create things, selling your crafts at the weekend farmer’s market is another great way to bring in some extra money too!

Best companies for seasonal work include:

• Amazon
• Alorica
• HSN
• Liveops
• NexRep
• Williams-Sonoma

15. Deliver Groceries with Instacart

Plenty of people order food for holiday parties, and with the COVID-19 virus still hanging around, they are getting their groceries delivered. Instacart is a service that delivers groceries to your front door. They use the latest technology and deliver in as little as an hour from when you place the order.

You can make $20+ per hour plus tips for delivering groceries with Instacart. And this job can be very flexible for those who want to work extra hours during the busy holiday season, making it one of the best ways to earn cash for Christmas.

If you’re looking for a side hustle or full-time job, this is definitely worth checking out.

16. Get Paid to Lose Weight with Healthy Wage

Many people are looking for ways to make more money this Christmas, and many want to lose weight. Why not kill two birds with one stone? Healthy Wage is a website that allows you to earn cash or gift cards just for losing weight!

First, you use their calculator to set your goal and calculate your winnings. Then you make your bet, lose the weight, and win the money! Healthy Wage lets you increase how much money you win by adjusting your weight goal, the time you take to lose it, or how much you want to contribute.

After that, you stay on track with weekly weigh-ins and support from your fellow contestants. Of course, you will need to start this well before Christmas.

17. Start a Proofreading and Editing Side Hustle

Do you have a good eye for detail or maybe another skill that would make you great at proofreading and editing assignments?

If so, this might be the perfect side hustle to help keep your bank account full during the busy holiday season. You can work as an independent contractor or find online jobs working on-demand from companies like Upwork, TaskRabbit, and Fiverr.

I don’t like to encourage people to use sites like Upwork or Fiverr because they take a considerable cut of the money, but it’s a way to find work fast during the holidays.

I prefer you sign up with Caitlin Pyle’s Proofread Anywhere program because it’s legit and reputable. She started it in 2014 after being fired from a horrible corporate job and has helped thousands of students work from home as proofreaders now. 

18. Get Cash Back with Rakuten

If you’re looking for a way to cover Christmas expenses, why not get cash back on the things you were going to buy anyway? You can even get cash back shopping at your local Walmart, Target, or Home Depot.

Rakuten, formerly known as Ebates, is a great place to earn a percentage of each qualifying purchase back which means you get paid to shop. Nice, huh?

You can also use an app like Fetch that lets you scan in your grocery receipts for points you can cash in on gift cards to AMC, Amazon, Adidas, and many others.

19. Do Task Gigs

If you’re looking for a way to make some quick money this season, consider becoming an on-demand worker with companies like TaskRabbit or Amazon Mechanical Turk.

You can do micro-tasks that don’t take much time and earn money for each one. These are short tasks like testing a website, watching videos, etc. The drawback is that you won’t make tons of money doing these jobs.

But it’s perfect for stay-at-home parents who don’t have much time but want to make holiday cash in their spare time.

20. Be a Product Tester

If you have a little more time and want to make the most of your spare minutes, consider doing product testing with companies like UserTesting.com.

It’s also called Pilot testing, and companies do it to see whether there is a potential market for their products. You get free products right at your home in exchange for detailed feedback about how well they work or don’t.

Best websites for product testing include:

• UserTesting
• Vindale Research
• Pinecone Research
• Brooks
• BzzAgent
• Social Nature
• Influenster

21. House Sit or Babysit

Do you enjoy babysitting, or maybe you’re the go-to house sitter for family and friends?

If so, you can look on Care.com or Sittercity for jobs as an occasional babysitter or house sitter. Some people even need long-term house sitters so you can get paid to watch someone else’s house and get rid of your rent payment.

This can be especially lucrative if you’re near nice suburbs with families going out of town for the holidays. People like someone at their houses while they are out of town to prevent being a victim of crimes of opportunities like burglary and theft when they aren’t home for Christmas.

Best websites to find house sitting or babysitting jobs include:

• Care.com
• SitterCity
• Au Pair in America
• UrbanSitter
• Trusted House Sitters
• House Sitters America
• Mind My House
• Au Pair in America

22. Save Your Change

A quick way to save money for Christmas is to use apps like Digit, Chime, and Acorns that round up your purchases to the next dollar and save that change. You would be surprised how fast those savings add up over time.

Acorns is a cool app that invests your change for you, and you can have money taken out weekly or monthly. You can even have money taken out of your account for an IRA.

Digit is one of my favorite money-saving apps. It makes saving money automatic, so you don’t even need to think about it.

Best websites to use to save your change:

• Digit
• Chime
• Acorns
• Qapital
• Qoins

23. Earn Free Gift Cards

There are so many ways to earn free gift cards, and they don’t even require a ton of time or effort.

You can find online surveys that you qualify for, such as those offered by Pinecone Research, Survey Junkie, Mindswarmsurveys.com; these will pay in cash or prizes like Amazon Gift Cards.

You can also complete tasks like watching videos, downloading apps, and completing offers to earn money in the form of gift cards for places like AMC theaters and Amazon.

Best websites to earn free gift cards:

• Pinecone Research
• Survey Junkie
• Mindswarmsurveys.com
• Fetch
• Swagbucks
• Ibotta
• InboxDollars

24. Create and Sell Study Guides

If you’re a student or have some knowledge in certain subjects, turn your notes into study guides and sell them for profit.

You can search online to find out what’s trending on Amazon, such as the 2021 ACT Prep Book, and then create a PDF with all of that information included.

You could even include sections for students like how to prepare for a test, study tricks for success, and review quizzes.

You could also create a course about how to pass the College Board’s Advanced Placement tests as Test Prep Tutor does with their online courses. Their classes often include exam-taking strategies, practice tests, study tips, and other features to help students get into college!

Best websites to sell study guides:

• Oxbridge Notes
• Quest Notes
• Course Hero
• Nexus Notes
• Notesale
• Notesmate
• Omega Notes

25. Work for Special Events

Craigslist has a section on its website named “Gigs.” Here, you can find events that need extra help so you can earn cash for Christmas presents.

It depends on your location, but you may see things like event cleanup help, political canvassing, and many more. In my area, I even saw a listing for someone who needed a freelance writer and opportunities to deliver food or clean houses.

It’s not like these special events are your forever job. They are the perfect gigs to work part-time to make extra money for the holidays. Just make sure to vet potential jobs and be careful that it isn’t a scam.

26. Be a Mystery Shopper

Some companies hire mystery shoppers to test customer service skills, how well a company staffs its stores or locations, and so much more.

This is just one of the many ways you can make money during the holiday shopping season that doesn’t require any prior knowledge about anything.

A website like BestMark provides mystery shoppers for business and you can filter opportunities by location and sign up.

Companies like these need to know what they are getting for their money, and the information a shopper gathers is invaluable.

Best websites to find mystery shopping gigs:

• BestMark
• Second to Known
• Sinclaire Customer Metrics
• Pinnacle
• Secret Shopper
• A Customer’s Point of View (ACPVIEW)

FAQs

What are some legit money-making apps?

Here are some of the best apps to make money using:

• Swagbucks
• Postmates
• Truebill
• Ibotta
• Acorns
• InboxDollars
• Parius
• Survey Junkie
• Stash
• Capital One Shopping
• Rakuten

How can I make quick Christmas money?

There are several ways to make fast money for Christmas, including:

• Working in retail during the holiday season
• Sell things you don’t need on Facebook Marketplace or Craigslist
• One tip jobs like shoveling snow or cleaning peoples’ houses
• Gig work on places like Amazon Turk Mechanical
• Drive for Lyft or Uber
• Answer surveys for online for extra cash.
• Pet sit or babysit
• Teach English online
• Become a mystery shopper
• Work as a seasonal worker online
• Deliver food or groceries

Final Thoughts on Extra Money for Christmas

As you can see, there are plenty of ways to make extra money for Christmas. Most of us can use some extra dollars for the holidays.

Many of these ways are easy and don’t require a ton of time, effort, or experience. Other ideas can even develop into long-term positions that allow you to quit your day job, like freelance writing or blogging.

If you want to learn how to make extra income during the holidays, don’t sweat it. Just pick one of these great options, and I’m sure you’ll make enough extra cash for gifts and other holiday necessities that you won’t need to use your credit cards at all this year. On the contrary, you may be able to pay some of them off instead.

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