Holiday bills are coming due, which may make you want to consider a side hustle. There are plenty of great side gigs for 2026 that can help you pay off that holiday debt and then some.
We’ve broken them down month-to-month, showing some of the gigs that are in highest demand during that month or season. However, most of these gigs are available year-round. So if you find one that works for you, stick with it. And maybe add a second, if you have the time.
January: Donate Plasma
Donating plasma is not only lucrative, it is life saving. Plasma is used for cancer patients, trauma and burn victims and to help people with autoimmune diseases. So when you donate plasma, you can feel like you’re saving lives while making money. It’s also highly lucrative.
Typically, the biomedical companies that pay for plasma donations pay between $50 and $100 per donation. Donations typically require a little more than an hour, during which you’re seated in a comfortable lounge chair, given drinks, snacks, and access to movies.
Plasma regenerates in your body quickly, so you can give plasma as often as twice weekly. But, the FDA limits total donations to no more than 24 a year — roughly two a month. You must be in good health and weigh more than 110 pounds. Sites where you can sign up to donate include Octapharma Plasma and Biomat.
February: Resale
By now, you’ve put away the holiday gifts and are likely dealing with closets filled with clutter. Why not use this moment to sell the things you no longer use and generate some quick cash to pay off those holiday bills?
There are great online marketplaces to sell everything from clothing (Poshmark) to furniture (Facebook Marketplace, OfferUp). If you’ve got gold jewelry you don’t use, you can sell it to Alloy. If you have valuable used books or art, you can try Abe Books or eBay. And, if things you want to get rid of don’t sell, you can give them to charity and take a write-off on your 2026 tax return for their fair market value.
Fair market value would be what they’d sell for at a thrift store. But, if you give away more than $500 worth of used goods, you will need to fill out a form 8283 specifying what you gave. Also always take pictures and jot down estimated values of each item when donated, just in case you’re ever audited.
March: Clean and Organize
Those with mad cleaning and organizing skills can capitalize on American’s penchant for Spring cleaning. There are two good places to advertise this service. Taskrabbit is an online job marketplace, where you publish a detailed profile and your rates. The site will match you to clients looking for the service in your area and add a fee onto your rates to pay their expenses. You get the rate you set.
However, neighborhood social media site, Nextdoor, has also become a highly effective marketplace for local services such as these. You can find jobs by simply stating your availability and what you charge, or have a past client recommend you publicly.
April: Seasonal Work
Hotels and resorts around the country start looking for seasonal staff in the spring. These jobs involve everything from cooking, cleaning and serving to attending a front desk, taking guests on hikes, horseback rides, fishing trips and the like. Three good sites to find this type of work: CoolWorks, VagaJobs and Xanterra.
CoolWorks and VagaJobs are both directories of seasonal work. Xanterra works with the National Park system to staff resorts in Yellowstone, Glacier National Park and Death Valley, among other places.
May: Pet Sit
As vacation season ramps up, so does the need for pet sitters. If you’re an animal-lover, this can be a lucrative and fun side hustle all year. However, summer and winter holidays are peak season, when you’re likely to have the most interest. The best place to offer this service is on Rover, which lets you set up a profile, determine your own rates, preferences (such as the type of animals you’re willing to watch), and schedule.
June: Moving
Got muscles and a truck — or just one or the other? You can make money helping people move. Sites like GoShare, Citizen Shipper, HireaHelper, LaborJack and Airtasker can all help you find moving gigs, which are ubiquitous during the summer.
July: Event staff
Outdoor concerts and events ramp up during the summer, giving freelancers a myriad of attractive side gigs in hospitality. Whether you get a gig at a concession stand or taking tickets, you’re often in attendance at sold-out shows that would cost you hundreds to enjoy as a visitor. And, of course, you get paid too. Sites where you can find these jobs include Instawork, Qwick and GigSmart.
August: Tutoring
Back-to-school is the theme of August, which often means helping students recover all the academic lessons they forgot over the summer. Multiple tutoring platforms can help you find students to coach. The best of these are sites that allow you to set your own rates, availability and schedule. SideHusl.com’s top pick: Wyzant, which does all of that and has millions of regular visitors. However, TutorOcean, LessonFace and Juni Learning are also worth a look.
September: Food Delivery
School schedules tend to push parents into overdrive, juggling school, sports and their own jobs. What do burned-out parents do? They order in. Whether it’s ordering groceries through Instacart or dinner through DoorDash or GrubHub, the demand for delivery jumps through the roof.
October: Package delivery
The holiday season is prime time for package delivery jobs through Amazon Flex. While Flex usually has plenty of delivery help during the year and doesn’t add new freelancers unless it’s opening a new market, the holiday season is different. This is when the site actively recruits people for the three-month stretch when it’s busiest delivering holiday packages. Amazon Flex typically enlists freelancers to commit to 2-4-hour delivery blocks, which pay between $18 and $25 per hour, depending on how efficiently you work.
November: Portrait Photography
Families looking for the perfect holiday card shot drive photography hustles in November. If you want to find these gigs, you have two good options: Taskrabbit and Nextdoor.
As we mentioned above (see March: Cleaning & Organizing), with Taskrabbit, you set up a profile with a summary of your experience. You set your own rates and Taskrabbit adds a fee on top to pay for their marketing and collection service. With Nextdoor, you’re on your own. This social media site has become a hotspot for local services, ranging from babysitting to photography. You simply state what you want to do.
For instance: “Does anyone need a portrait photographer to take shots for your holiday cards? I charge $50 an hour, with a 2-hour minimum.”
December: Holiday hustles
The holiday season brings out dozens of holiday-specific hustles, from wrapping packages and running errands to hanging lights or serving appetizers and drinks at Christmas and Hanukkah parties. Additionally, if you have products to sell — candles, wreaths, holiday cards, or gifts of any type, you are also likely to find more customers during the giving season.
Sites that can help you sell holiday gifts include Etsy and eBay. Sites that can help you find holiday serving gigs include Jitjatjo and Qwick. The best sites to help you find miscellaneous holiday errands, light-hanging and gift-wrapping gigs are Nextdoor and Taskrabbit.
