The smell of Christmas cookies, mincemeat tarts and other holiday treats baking is a favorite of almost everybody, but many people don’t have the time to bake anymore. If you’ve got a flair for making cookies and other treats, you can bake up some extra money this holiday season!

You can offer your services as a baker to friends and neighbors, by taking orders for custom cookies and other baked goods. Homemade baked goods always taste better than store bought, so you will find a very willing market for your baked goods! This is an excellent activity to get kids involved with too, as they can help decorate the cookies if needed, and can help package them up as well. Of course they will also be happy to be designated tasters for each batch!

Store-bought pie is good, but when it comes down to it, nothing beats homemade pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving! If you have a knack for making pies, you can make money taking orders from friends and neighbors for homemade pumpkin pies this Thanksgiving!

All the supplies you’d need can be purchased at most supermarkets, although you’ll save money if you buy in bulk from places like Costco or Sam’s Club. Any good baking supply store will also have cardboard boxes that you can put the frozen pies in if you’d like. Since the pies will be baked by the customers just in time for Thanksgiving dinner, you can make and freeze the pies ahead of time.

Take orders before you buy ingredients, that way you know you’ll have enough supplies for every order. You can charge before delivery or upon delivery of the pies, but charging beforehand allows you to buy the ingredients with no out-of-pocket expenses for you.

You can ask friends and neighbors for orders, as well as posting on a community or church bulletin board. Be sure to specify a deadline for placing orders, as you’ll need enough time to get the supplies and make the pies!

This is an excellent opportunity to get your children involved, with activities such as rolling out dough, mixing pie filling, bagging frozen pies for each order, etc. Making homemade pumpkin pies is a fun way to spend a weekend, and can easily bring in over $100 in profit.

Babysitting is one of the most common ways for teens and adults alike to earn money part time. As the holidays approach, many parents will be needing people to look after their kids while they attend parties, shop, cook, etc. Babysitting is an easy way to earn extra money for the holidays.

You can ask your friends and neighbors for referrals, as just about everybody knows someone who needs a good babysitter. You can also sign up with a babysitting service that will find work for you, or even search Craigslist postings for your area. The best option is to ask people you know for referrals, as this is the safest option especially for teenagers.

Be sure to ask about any important medical issues, special care instructions, and have a list of important phone numbers before you’re left in charge. Aside from that, you can make money while having tons of fun playing games, watching movies, or even doing crafts.

Many teenagers make the majority of their holiday money by babysitting, and so can you!

Holidays involving family gatherings and big meals, such as Thanksgiving, are often busy and stressful times for parents. Running a Thanksgiving kids craft workshop is a good way to entertain kids, give parents some free time, and allow you to earn some extra money.

Kids crafts for Thanksgiving is a long standing tradition, and one of my favorite memories of Fall when I was growing up. I remember coming home from school and weekend workshops with turkeys made of all sorts of things, and they always made a star appearance as part of the dinner table’s centerpiece.

You can run a Thanksgiving craft workshop at your house, at a local school, a church, community center or even a library. Supplies depend on the crafts you want to do, but can include items as simple as pipe cleaners, paper bags, pine cones, paper cups, fuzzy pom-poms, paper plates, colored felt, and latex paint. You’ll also need markers, paintbrushes, safety scissors and glue.

Check out some Thanksgiving crafts to get some ideas of crafts you can do. You can probably charge $10-$15 per child, for a 2 hour workshop.

Roasting a turkey for the first time is a daunting task, not only does it have to be cooked for the right length of time to ensure it’s fully cooked, it has to be perfectly juicy as well. Not to mention timing it so everything is ready at the same time! If you’re an old pro at making Thanksgiving dinner, why not help people learn how to do it right? Host a turkey dinner workshop!

This idea could be as simple as having some people over to your kitchen as you prepare a turkey, or you could borrow/rent kitchen space at your local community center, church or school. Unless you wanted to spend 4-6 hours in a kitchen with your students, it might be best to start the turkey ahead of time and just explain what you did to prep it for roasting. This will allow more time for the final hour of cooking, preparing the other dishes, and then carving the bird. In order to be profitable, you’ll need to calculate the food costs and set the workshop prices accordingly. You can charge a bit higher if you include a turkey dinner as part of the workshop!

Bon appetit!

Looking to have some fun and make some money before Halloween? You can host a pumpkin carving workshop just before Halloween for neighborhood children. A pumpkin carving workshop is easy and fun, and kids love them!

All you need is a set of kids pumpkin carving tools for each child that will be attending (available at Wal-Mart or just about every dollar store), spoons for scooping out the pumpkin guts, some bowls, some tea lights, some fun Halloween music to play, and lots of newspapers and towels!

Each child would bring their own pumpkin, and would leave with a Jack-o-lantern that they designed and carved themselves. Older children can help younger ones with some of the work, so everyone can get involved. As an added bonus, you can collect and roast the pumpkin seeds for a healthy treat for the kids.

Consider setting up a wash station near the pumpkins so you don’t get pumpkin goop everywhere! This is especially useful if the workshop is run at a local school or church, where washroom facilities might not be near to your carving location. By spreading newspapers out, cleanup becomes a snap as you can put the whole mess into a compost bin.

You could expect to charge $10-$15 per child for the workshop, and have it run for about 2 hours. If you run the workshop on Halloween, it will be a fun activity for the children and will keep them from eating all the candy the parents have bought to hand out that night!

Nothing beats a quality homemade Halloween costume! Halloween is fast approaching, if you’ve got a sewing machine and know how to use it, you can offer your sewing services to make Halloween costumes from scratch, or alter existing ones to fit.

Patterns are available in craft stores and online, for almost every type of costume imaginable. Many elements of patterns can even be re-used for different costumes, such as simple pants, shirts, dresses, skirts, cloaks, capes, etc.

A good friend of mine is going for Halloween as Alice in Wonderland, and she paid over $50 for her costume from a Halloween store. The costume is little more than a blue dress with a white apron sewn on, very easy to make, so why don’t you make that profit instead of the store!

You could advertise general costume making services in the newspaper, or put up a flyer on a community bulletin board, or even just by word of mouth. You could even make specific costumes and list them for sale, although there’s a chance the costumes might not sell, so you’re better off taking orders for specific costumes. Make sure you leave enough time to make each one and allow time for alterations and adjustments before the 31st!

You could probably earn $40-$50 per costume depending on the complexity of each one, just 10 costumes would get you close to the $500 goal!

We’re well into autumn here in North America, and that means the leaves are falling from the trees, plants are dying off, and homes need to be prepared for winter. Opportunities abound for casual yardwork such as mowing lawns, raking leaves, trimming plants, and winter home preparation such as cleaning & storing patio furniture.

If you have access to common yard tools such as a lawnmower, trimmer, rake, wheelbarrow and clippers, you can offer your services to neighbors or other people in your community. You might not have much luck finding work with families who have children living at home, so ask around or advertise in areas without young children. Seniors and professional couples are your best bet, but don’t rule out anyone without asking.

Adults can easily make $50 in a weekend from just a few referrals, children would probably be limited to friends and neighbors but there is definitely money to be made. Yardwork will be a viable means to make extra money for at least the next month.

Welcome to Earn Holiday Cash, a free resource to help you earn some extra money for the Christmas holidays! With the troubled financial times we’ve been having, everyone could use a little extra money as we near the holiday season.

I’m going to show you how to make a bit of extra cash to make this holiday season wonderful for you and your loved ones. I’ll be sharing my best tips and ideas for simple businesses that you can start in your spare time, inexpensive gifts that you can make and sell, and even some neat ways to make money on the internet. It doesn’t matter if you’re 5 or 55.. there’s something here for everybody.

There’s just over 70 days until Christmas, let’s get started!