Holiday hustles to ease inflation’s bite

The holiday season is always expensive, but the rapid rise of prices makes it even more daunting this year. That’s got nearly onequarter of Americans looking for holiday hustles.

If you’re among this group, the good news is that there’s plenty of extra work during the holiday season — cooking, wrapping presents, in-store retail and more.

Decorating

If you want to help people wrap presents, decorate their homes or hang holiday lights, your best bet is to print fliers and create a website. Simple website builders can have you up and running in an hour for less than the cost of lunch. Have photos of the beautiful decorations and lights you put up last year? Or those perfectly wrapped packages under your tree? That, plus some contact and pricing information, is all you need to build your site.

Be sure to use the website builder’s search engine optimization tools to designate what you do and where. This is as simple as plugging in some keywords such as “holiday decorating.” Also plug in your city or service area to help potential customers find you when they do a Google search.

Finally, link your site to your Instagram and Facebook accounts or other social media sites. If you’re not on Nextdoor, sign up and post an announcement about your service there too.

Cooking

Those with the passion and skill to make perfect Christmas cookies or gingerbread houses can offer a seasonal cooking class on Tastemade.

The platform invites chefs — professional and amateur — to sign up and offer cooking experiences.

You decide when, where and how many people can participate. Classes can be in person, livestreamed or taped. You also set the price and the capacity for your class. And you can opt to give students a shopping list or include the cost of ingredients in your class price. If the class sells, Tastemade takes a commission from your revenue.

Craft-making

Etsy sells anything homemade, including clothing, jewelry and decorations. And winter decorations, welcome mats and gifts are everywhere.

The main problem new sellers have when listing their crafts and gifts is breaking through the plethora of other Etsy sellers. So take a close look at competition in your niche and find a way to make your product unique or less expensive to drive sales. Differentiate your product with design, personalization and imagination.

Keywords are important here too. Use words that accurately describe what you’re offering: Santa Clause wreath; Christmas stockings; Hanukkah menorah; Kwanzaa decorations.

Pet sitting

Two-thirds of Americans travel during the holidays to visit relatives or to enjoy a winter holiday. If you don’t mind watching houses and pets, you can list this service on Rover.

Pet sitters typically charge $25 to $100 per night, and many Rover sitters have higher holiday rates.

If you can, make your service unique — highenergy dog specialist, cat whisperer, boa boarding. Then you can command a premium price and draw plenty of business.

Cleaning

Holiday gatherings often spur deep household scrubbing. People willing to do this kind of deep cleaning can earn good money to swoop in and make houses shine before the holidays. The best place to offer these services is on TaskRabbit.

In-store retail

The best place to look for in-store retail jobs is Indeed, a job search site that lets you search by position, location and other factors. The site now lists more than 11,000 retail job openings in Los Angeles alone. Most jobs are listed with a salary range and basic requirements.

Kristof is the editor of SideHusl.com, an independent website that reviews moneymaking opportunities in the gig economy.