Holiday Side Hustles for Extra Income on Your Homestead!
Are you wondering how you can earn some extra cash on your homestead for the holiday season? Here’s a great list of holiday side hustles for homesteaders! Try a few of these ideas to make money and help cover the expenses during this busy time of year.
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For more ideas to create income streams from your homestead, check out my posts How to Make Money from Your Homestead – 101 to Make an Income and How to Sell Your Farm Fresh Eggs!
Create and Sell Christmas Wreaths & Garland
Do you have evergreen trees and other decorative plant material growing on your homestead? Learn how to make beautiful wreaths, garlands, and swags to sell for the holidays!
Start out by making a few and donating them to silent auctions and charities. Give one to a local business that gets a lot of exposure. Be sure to include a tag with your contact information so people can place an order.
There are plenty of ornamental plants that yield the basics for homemade wreaths and swags.
- Evergreen trees and shrubs
- Red twig dogwood
- Curly willow
- Harry Lauder’s walking stick
- Holly
- Grapevines
- Everlasting Flowers
- Pinecones
Christmas Trees
This takes planning and investment unless you already have the trees planted. Once you have the tree farm established, people will pay top dollar for the experience of cutting their own Christmas tree for the holidays.
There are many opportunities to upsell that ‘home for the holidays’ experience too. An old barn may be converted into a gift shop with a cafe and fireplace for guests to warm up after they hunt down their tree.
Sell hot cocoa, goat milk fudge, and other goodies. Specialty ornaments, photos with Santa’s sleigh, and handmade wreaths can all be marketed in the right area.
This side hustle takes planning, but it is a business you may build over the years to help supplement your homesteading income during the lean months.
Raise Heritage Holiday Foods
Raise specialty meats, heirloom fruits and vegetables, and other specialty foods for the holidays. There are people willing to spend extra on a heritage turkey for Thanksgiving or a hickory-smoked ham for Christmas.
Could you sell specialty apples and heirloom pumpkins? What about nuts, such as hickory, almonds, walnuts, and hazelnuts? Perhaps you could raise heritage grains for baking loaves of bread and other goodies.
Sell Home Crafted Goodies
Do you have holiday baked goods that everyone raves about? Homemade jams and jellies that are the talk of the town? Try your hand at making those special treats for sale around the holidays!
A treasured family recipe may be just the ticket to bring in extra cash during the Thanksgiving and Christmas season. Homegrown fruits and veggies may be preserved in decorative jars and marketed in the fall for seasonal sales.
There are many people who love the idea of giving handmade goodies, but they lack the time, energy, or knowledge to create these items themselves. Dressed up with pretty labels and bows and lined up on an old-fashioned pie safe, your downhome preserves will be hard to pass up!
Be sure to follow local regulations when selling food items.
Handmade Arts & Crafts
Handcrafted items such as dollhouses, quilts, paintings, jewelry, ceramic dishes, wooden toys, and furniture make wonderful holiday gifts! Are you a talented artist or crafter? An experienced woodworker? Maybe you enjoy creating natural bath and body products.
Find an item that you can create fairly easily that requires little investment in time and money, and is adored by your friends and family…and you just might have a great product to market for the holidays!
Your arts and crafts may be created in your spare time all year round and then sold at craft shows, on Etsy, or open your own website to sell your goods. Try your hand at several different items and see which ones do well. It’s a great idea to have several different price points for your items to increase sales. Each year try a new project to keep things fresh and inspiring!
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Holiday Pet & Farm Sitting
Maybe you don’t want to sell products but would prefer to offer a service, such as pet sitting or farm sitting in your area. A lot of folks want to go away for the holidays to visit family or take a vacation, but it’s hard to do with animals.
If you have room to put in a few kennels this could become a year-round side hustle on your homestead. Or you can just offer pet sitting in your home for people you know. Have them bring their own pet food and dishes to help prevent ‘homesickness’ and give their pets extra attention to keep them happy.
Do you have a good place to do grooming for an upsell? A bath and nail trim may be an extra that pet parents are happy to pay for!
Boarding horses could be a year-round side hustle for your homestead too. If you decide to try your hand at farm sitting make sure you feel comfortable with the animals your clients own. Don’t be afraid to say no to a large farm with hard-to-handle livestock.
Send a small gift bag of homemade dog biscuits or kitty treats home with your furry clients and offer these goodies for sale! Try your hand and making a soothing paw balm for sale to pet owners, too.
Cleaning, Shopping, & Odd Jobs for Cash
You don’t have to live on a homestead for this one! During the holiday season, people are so busy that keeping up with the house cleaning and shopping can be stressful. There just might be a market for a housecleaner, personal shopper, or personal assistant in your area.
Make sure you’ve got all of the necessary equipment to clean houses on hand before you jump into the house cleaning business. It could pay to start a green cleaning business using only natural, non-toxic cleaners.
Filling in as a personal shopper or personal assistant could be a fun way to make some extra cash too. Maybe your potential clients need help with grocery shopping, meal planning, or buying and wrapping gifts. They may need someone to pick the kids up from school occasionally or deliver gifts and groceries to a family member.
If you do a great job for your temporary clients, they just might want to hire you for a permanent position or for special jobs such as spring and fall cleaning. As a personal shopper or assistant, they may enlist your help the next time they plan a big event or go on vacation.
Babysitting or Care for the Elderly
Here’s another way to earn cash that doesn’t require a homestead.
Perhaps you have experience babysitting or helping the elderly with their household chores. It can be hard to find someone to help out with these responsibilities around the holidays.
You might be able to pick up some extra cash helping out families with young children or elderly parents who need a caretaker. This can also become a year-round job for the right person.
Sleigh Rides & Farm Visits
Do you have a horse, or team of horses, that are trained to pull a sleigh? You might have a side job giving sleigh rides or wagon rides during the holiday season! Hot cocoa, coffee, and cookies on the ride along with some vintage blankets will keep everyone happy and warm.
Give tractor rides or leading walking tours through scenic spots. If there is a great story or local history to share with your guests it will create a special experience to go with their family photos. In the autumn, use your homegrown pumpkins, gourd, and cornstalks to decorate a walking path or create a corn maze to draw in families wishing to spend a day in the country.
Decorating for the Holidays
Do you love to decorate for the holidays? Maybe you have an eye for interior and exterior design. Are you willing to put up and take down Thanksgiving and Christmas displays?
This could be the perfect job for someone with an artistic flair. Of course, you will really have to hustle from Thanksgiving through Christmas and again after the New Year. However, the right person could have an outlet for their creativity and earn extra spending money too!
This could involve getting on a ladder to install Christmas lights, so you may need additional insurance for this side hustle. Or maybe you could specialize in interior holiday design.
Seasonal Jobs for Extra Income
Maybe none of these opportunities sound like your thing. Of course, there are always seasonal jobs in retail, on Christmas tree farms, or working for delivery companies during the holiday season. You may have to work weekends, evenings, nights, or on the holidays, but you won’t have to worry about investing your time and money into a project that might not work out.
Spruce up your resume and apply at a fabric and crafts store, grocery stores, big-box businesses, or restaurants as a part-time seasonal employee. If you have great people skills you should do just fine!
Year-Round Holiday Side Hustles!
Many of these ideas are centered around Thanksgiving and Christmas, but some may be applied to any holiday! For example, pet sitting, house cleaning, and babysitting can be done year-round.
You could cash in with holiday side hustles throughout the year! Do you celebrate other holidays or live in an area with a large and diverse population? Check to see if other holiday celebrations are underserved and find ways to fill that niche market.
Do you love Halloween? Perhaps you could start a pumpkin patch with other fall goodies for sale. Or maybe you would prefer to sell specialty pumpkins, gourds, corn stalks, and fall decor to landscaping companies that decorate home exteriors. Follow up with sales of natural materials for winter decor.
Maybe Mardi Gras is big in your area…learn to make King cake and other Fat Tuesday treats.
Create patriotic decor for sale around Memorial Day and the 4th of July.
Which Holiday Side Hustles are Right for You?
Try one of these holiday side hustles for homesteaders this season. And once the holidays are over you can go back to your normal life with a little extra cash in your pockets!
Get creative and brainstorm some other ideas for your own holiday side hustles…Christmas Cookiegram? Dress up as Santa for home visits? Holiday photography? What are your talents and hobbies?
Look at what business might do well in your area and ask around. Check with your local Chamber of Business, clubs, and other organizations for information that will be helpful in determining your niche.
Who knows, you might come up with the next big holiday trend!
What are your holiday side hustles? Leave a comment!
