Earning Money at Christmas

Yes, I did mean “earning money *at* Christmas”, not “earning money *for* Christmas”.

The key with Christmas is to realise that 90% of the population will see the second statement, not the first.  People increasingly see Christmas as the season to max out the credit card, rather than a time for family and quiet reflection.  If your attitude does NOT reflect this, then it can be a wonderful time to make some money.  I would highly recommend not thinking that whatever you earn is free to be spent on Christmas presents, food and clothes.   Personally, I like to earmark mine for a bit of debt reduction (no great surprise there!), but I know others who have decided to use the lump sum to buy something that they have long craved, but not been able to afford, or to add to an ongoing savings fund.

So, how to do it?

1. Start thinking now.  Seriously.  December 1st is just too late.  Saturday jobs will have been filled, busking spots taken and opportunities very thin on the ground.
2. Work on what skills you have.  The great thing about Christmas is that there are opportunities for short timescale earnings, even if you don’t have much in the way of specialist skills to bring to the table.  I would highly recommend taking half an hour, making a cup of tea and making a list of things that you think you are good at.  Mine would read like this: singing, playing harp & bagpipes, embroidery, crochet, sewing larger items, talking in public, gardening, writing, being a good parent.
3. Look at the list and try to see where your skills might fit around the Christmas season: Music = carol singing.  Crafting = Christmas craft markets.  Talking in public = story-telling.  Gardening = providing local veggies to friends and neighbours. Being a good parent = babysitting for parents who want to go shopping.   If you have a skill and you aren’t sure where it might be marketable, why not post it here in comments, and other readers could offer suggestions?
4. Do the backup research – find out where the good busking pitches are, and whether you need a license.  Enquire about Christmas craft markets and the prices of stalls.  Find out if the local library might like to run a story-telling event.  Work out what veggies will be in season, and draw up leaflets offering a one-off “box-scheme” for Christmas with whatever you have available.  Make up cards/brochures for the shopping babysitting service and drop them with the local playgroup/school.
5. Prepare for whatever your plans are – practise the carols, make the christmas craft widgets, find some good stories and practise them, water your veggies, child-proof your house or obtain a CRB check.  Be aware that if you are marketing a Christmas service, you need to start providing round about mid-November.  Don’t get caught short!
6. Enjoy!  The nice thing about Christmas is the more that you avoid compulsive purchasing and marketing, the more fun it gets as a holiday.  Whether you celebrate Christmas, Yule, Hannukah, Midwinter or whatever, it can be a wonderful time of year once you shed the societal expectations.

Me?  I’m carol-singing again this year, with three other good friends.  Hopefully we’ll take my 11 year old son with us this year (dressed as a victorian chimney sweep!), so we’ll have a great time singing with family AND friends.  I love doing this, and the fact that I get paid is really icing on the cake.

Let’s pay off some of that debt!