Whether you’re trying to figure out how to make money when it’s cold or are looking for lucrative winter side hustles, there are plenty to choose from. You can also cater your weekend side hustle around your interests and whether or not you want to be indoors or out. Not all side hustles in winter are about being out in the cold, but if you love snow and the great outdoors, you can make a bundle.
Here’s our round-up of where to get started. Or pick a few and build a thriving business this winter that translates to more revenue and savings for spring.
![Image of a woman holding heart-shaped hand decorating a Christmas tree to convey the best winter side hustles](https://weekendsidehustle.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Screen-Shot-2023-10-18-at-10.58.41-PM.png)
Decorating In a Box Service
The holiday decorating boom seems to start the second Halloween rolls around the corner and doesn’t end until the day after the wintery New Year’s. Whether you live in a busy city or a quiet suburb, people are busy and don’t have time to string lights around their house and go shopping for decorations. But even if people don’t celebrate Christmas, they still need help with Hanukah decor, holiday lights, New Year’s party decorating, Kwanza, and more.
Try packaging out your services in two ways. Offer to drop off a done-for-you decoration in a box bundle. You can also upsell a package to do all the decorating and a third service to bring the box, decorate, and take it all down again after the holidays and get it out of their home.
Ski and Snowboarding Transportation
If you love to make money in the cold and be part of the skiing and snowboarding season, this winter side hustle is for you. Advertise your services to drive people to ski and snowboarding resorts for the day. Although a place like Breckenridge already has a fierce transportation infrastructure, smaller resorts do not. Or they only offer transportation from major airports and train stations. Yet there are still plenty of people who want to get away for a day trip and hit the slopes.
For example, New Yorkers spend a bundle to catch a charter bus to areas like Hunter Mountain in the early morning hours and come back in the evening. You can stand out by offering a private car or van ride to the mountain, complete with snacks, warm drinks, and a more comfortable way to get to the mountains.
Snow Trekking Tours for Airbnb Guests
Airbnb experiences are tours, events, and experiences led by local hosts in an area. You can even offer online experiences using Zoom, like giving people in-depth advice about what to see and do. But if you live in a wintery destination, turn your love of the outdoors into a winter side hustle. Offer to take tourists on snow trekking tours and end with hot toddies at the local bar. Or turn any of your town’s holiday fun into an Airbnb experience by serving as the go-to local expert.
There are also ways to upsell this side hustle in cold weather. Charge a premium to pick up guests and drop them back off, equipment rental, and VIP experiences. You can also learn more here about starting your own Airbnb side hustle (even without owning property!).
Christmas Light Installation
If you have some tall ladders and an eye for precision, you can start a Christmas light installation side hustle. People spend hundreds to thousands of dollars to decorate their outdoors for the winter holidays. You may not be able to compete with the biggest vendor in town, but there is a sweet spot for good service with a personal touch. Install lights in your own home or a family member’s to take photos and start an online portfolio to show off your work.
Get creative with add-ons and upsells for your holiday light-side hustle. Accent lights, electric luminaries, and inflatables are also money-making ways to give your customers more options.
![Decorated gifts and Christmas tree in background to convey gift wrapping winter side hustles](https://weekendsidehustle.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/gift-wrapping-winter-side-hustles-300x200.jpg)
Gift Wrapping Services
Gone are the days when all of the big box retailers offered free or low-cost gift wrapping. Today, you’re lucky if you get a holiday-themed gift bag with your order. With so much shopping online, consumers are left with boxes of toys, clothes, and other gifts to sort through and wrap. Offer to do it for them with upscale, premium gift wrapping options. You can source gift wrap on the cheap from discount retailers like the Dollar Store, but add homemade bows and flourishes to the service.
Beyond gift wrap, you can also pair holiday card curation with this side hustle for winter. A basic, store-bought holiday gift card set with a handwritten note is an easy add-on to make more money from time-starved customers.
Seasonal Retail Jobs
Part-time, temporary holiday retail jobs are underrated as a winter side hustle. Stores usually pay above the minimum wage to snag more workers for the holiday rush. You also don’t have to make yourself miserable if retail isn’t for you. Working at a restaurant, bar, or Christmas tree stand are all ways to earn more money without standing behind a cash register all day. Beyond the higher pay, you’ll usually secure discounts on products, food, and drinks.
Indoor Winter Odd Jobs
If you’re handy and can use a set of tools, you can land work doing odd indoor winter jobs. From sealing gaps around windows to changing out air filters and carbon monoxide detector batteries, homeowners have a laundry list of things to do that they don’t have time for. Just buying a new air filter and changing it out saves people time and is also significantly less expensive than booking an HVAC crew to do it for them.
But you still have options with winter odd jobs, even if you’re not that handy. Offer to clean out someone’s attic or garage, take items to Goodwill, and do a deep clean before company comes. There’s always a need for extra hands around the holidays; the trick is figuring out which one is the biggest pain point for potential customers.
Winter Party Helper
Throwing a holiday party isn’t for the faint of heart. From grocery shopping to food prep and making sure guests are fed and happy, the hosts aren’t usually having much fun. A holiday party helper is there to assist the host, but you can set boundaries, like you don’t do deep cleaning and only help get the house tidy after guests leave. Get on the same page by coming up with a list of what the host needs and agreeing to the terms before you get started. One of the best parts of being a party helper is that you get to enjoy yourself and usually get a helping of snacks and treats.
Personal Gift Shopping
The gift-giving season causes stress for the majority of us. It’s challenging to come up with fresh ideas for friends, family, co-workers, vendors, business clients, teachers, and new members of the family. Zero in on the types of gift shopping you do best, whether that’s for business clients or kids. Or you can offer general gift shopping services and create lists with links and prices for suggested items.
Once they arrive, upsell your customers on gift-wrapping services. The done-for-you experience helps stressed-out gift-givers and helps grow your winter side hustle income.
![Denali snow capped mountains to convey the best winter side hustles](https://weekendsidehustle.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Denali-300x200.jpg)
Seasonal National Park Work
If you love to travel, you can find work at national parks throughout the U.S. They’re often easier to find during the winter months, especially if you don’t mind living on-site in Alaska and colder mountainous areas. The U.S. National Park Service offers paid employment, student positions, and volunteer opportunities that could help you make money while traveling.
The National Park Service posts jobs through USAJobs.gov with detailed job postings of what’s expected, seasonality, projected hours, overtime requirements, and pay. Need a winter side hustle with your significant other? Our Traveling Jobs for Couples could lead you on a paid Antarctica adventure with free room and board.
Baked Goods and Delivery
Wintertime is all about baked goods, but not everyone wants to make them at home or bring store-brought options to a holiday party. Instead, homemade, freshly baked holiday cookies, pies, cakes, and old-fashioned treats are in demand. They’ll need a decorative flair to be eye-catching enough, but they are easy to share on social media. Post your favorite creations, announce they’re for sale, and see what happens.
Of course, you can earn more from this winter side hustle by offering to deliver or packaging them up in adorable holiday tins and packaging. This is also the kind of side hustle you can keep going throughout the year. Print up some business cards and remind your customers you make special occasional treats for birthdays, anniversaries, graduations, and more.
Parent’s Night Out Group Babysitting
Why charge $15 an hour to babysit one or two kids when you can make $300 a night for a special babysitting event? Charge families $3 to $40 per child for a holiday-themed group activity while they go holiday shopping or out to a party. Plan for holiday cookie decorating, games, and a movie for a pajama party. You’ll need another helper for this winter side hustle, or you can just take in a few kids in your own home and keep all the profit to yourself.
Holiday Pop-Up Stands
Money flows freely during the gift-giving season at flea markets and pop-up stands. You can look into renting a kiosk at a mall or retail center or setting up a table at a local flea market. Think about low-cost items with higher margins, like jewelry, gift wrap and cards, small toys, and handmade items. Attract more customers with a free coloring book station for kids while parents browse. Or offer free treats and cups of hot chocolate for your shoppers.
Christmas Tree Clean-Up and Removal
Breaking into the Christmas tree game isn’t always easy. You need a vendor and a prime location to sell trees. But focusing on the clean-up and removal when the holidays are done solves a major pain point and is in high demand. Offer to take down decorations, take the tree to the curb or local dump, and clean up the mess it leaves behind. You can earn more by offering a complete holiday clean-up service that breaks down all decorations and packs them up for storage or takes them to a local charity for donation.
Digital or Physical Scrapbooking Services
You can do this side hustle any time of year, but it’s easier to target sentimental shoppers looking for the perfect gift during the winter holidays. Offer to comb through digital or physical photos, label and organize them, and add them to scrapbooks. They can be packaged as a physical product or put online with the help of scrapbooking software.
You can also scrapbook well into the winter months. People want mementos from their holiday season, but they’re also looking for things to do in the cold winter months. Offer to teach scrapbooking to a larger group and earn more than by selling a one-off service.
![Red farmhouse in snow to convey the best winter side hustles](https://weekendsidehustle.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Screen-Shot-2023-10-18-at-11.10.06-PM-200x300.png)
Snow Removal Services
It wouldn’t be winter without some snow. If you live in a cold climate, people are happy to pay a neighbor, friend, or someone in their community to come and deal with their snow. You can provide a one-off service on a site like Facebook Marketplace or Network. But to earn a lot, offer it as an automatic retainer service. Anytime the snow accumulates past a certain amount, guarantee that you’ll be out shoveling their driveway in the early morning hours before work.
Knitting Classes
There’s something about winter that brings out the desire to become a maker. Knitting side hustles are especially popular in the winter when everyone is looking to get cozy and pass the time doing something productive. Pick a project, like a scarf, that your group can make for the holidays. Or market your class as a way to meet those New Year’s resolutions and learn something new.
Beyond teaching, you can also package and sell knitting kits to your students. Include knitting needles, yarn, instructions, and everything someone needs to make a rewarding project.
These winter side hustles give you everything you need to make at least $1,000. They also pair well together and give you tons of ideas to stay busy while earning a big payday.