19 Christmas Fundraising Ideas to Brighten Your Organization’s Holiday

There is no time of year quite like Christmas for generosity. Nearly one-third of all annual giving happens in December. The spirit of Christmas inspires people to give back, share kindness, and help others experience a little extra joy.

Whether you’re a school, sports team, church, or nonprofit, Christmas is the perfect season to run a fundraiser. The challenge is deciding what to do. Below are twenty fun and festive Christmas fundraising ideas that can bring your community together while supporting a great cause.

1. Calendar Fundraiser

A fundraiser that works any time of the year, but Christmas is a time of your when gift giving is at its highest.

A Christmas calendar fundraiser is a simple way to raise funds. Each date on the calendar represents a donation amount, and supporters “claim” a day by donating that number. 

The fundraiser can be themed around advent or decorated with festive graphics and snowflakes. It’s visual, easy to run online, and works especially well with digital tools like Teamfi.

2. Gift Wrapping Booth

Set up a gift-wrapping table at a local mall or holiday market and charge a small fee per gift. 

People love the convenience, and it’s a great volunteer activity for students of all ages. Wrap gifts at say, $5 or $10 each.

Sure, high schoolers or college students can wrap well, but middle and elementary students with adult help would do just fine.

3. Ornament Decorating Day

Have families pay to decorate Christmas ornaments.

Almost every household has ornaments that hang on their trees, even some passed down generation to generation. Now your organization can buy ornaments like glass stars or trees and with paint, glitter, and stickers can create your own ornaments.

4. Christmas Themed Run

Host a winter run! Whether it’s indoors with decorations, or outdoors, running an event like a 5k takes time and effort, but can be a powerful fundraiser. You’re going to need timing equipment, volunteers to help run the event, and course mapping in partnership with your local police department if you’re holding your event outside.

Charge a registration fee to help cover costs and include a shirt with the registration. Add sponsors that can be added to shirts and banners to really increase your fundraiser’s take home.

5. Christmas Cookie Sale

Who doesn’t love cookies? Ask volunteers within your organization whether it’s a team mom or a group of your fundraisers, and bake holiday cookies.

With pre-made gingerbread, sugar, and of course, chocolate chip cookies, sell them at local events or sports games. 

Bake sales are traditionally tough fundraisers, but check out a few tips how to improve your bake sale.

6. Holiday Movie Night

Tis’ the season to watch movies and Christmas movies at that. Organize a movie night for your program with a cost that covers tickets, popcorn, and gives a kickback to your program.

To legally have a movie night like this and make money off it, which you are doing, then the movies have to be in the public domain.

These movies are fair game.

1. It’s a Wonderful Life (1946)

2. A Christmas Carol (1935, starring Seymour Hicks)

3. Santa Claus Conquers the Martians (1964)

4. A Christmas Carol (1910 silent version)

5. Beyond Tomorrow (1940)

6. The Great Rupert (1950, starring Jimmy Durante)

7. The Night Before Christmas (1941 animated short)

If your kids are begging for Home Alone, Elf, or The Santa Claus, legally you’d have to get a public performance license. Going through the legal channels ahead of time, and bumping up ticket prices, and expanding your audience to make money off the event will take more time, but is feasible.

7. Christmas Get Together and Silent Auction

Have an organizational Christmas party where you charge money for a ticket. Food included, games, and a silent auction.

The tickets cover the food and the silent auction is the main money maker for your program. Through community donations, program purchases, and help from families, you too can build a great silent auction.

You can even have a theme like an ugly sweater contest and crown a “Best (or Worst) Sweater” winner. You can add trivia, karaoke, or cookie decorating to keep things fun.

8. Santa’s Village

A once mainstay in malls across the country, a Santa’s Village for your organization is a fun holiday idea.

Say you’re an elementary school PTO or PTA (which we have some amazing fundraising ideas for here). You can use your school’s gymnasium and set up a spot for photos with Santa, a small gift shop with your elementary’s merchandise like shirts, ornaments, and a gift wrapping station, and a hot chocolate bar.

It’s a little bit of work for sure, but parents can pay for things like photos with Santa and your PTO can get a portion of the tickets.

9. Host a Holiday Craft Fair

Craft fairs are huge in months like December. These fairs have vendors that pay to use your space, and you can sell tickets to the craft fair as well. So people pay $5 to enter for example, and say 50 vendors pay $50 each, that’s thousands of dollars just for renting out your gymnasium for your event for the day.

You can even do concession stands to increase revenue.

10. Letters From Santa Fundraiser

A fundraiser for the little ones, a hit with elementary PTOs and PTAs. Write personalized letters from Santa. For a small donation, families can surprise their children with a custom note written by Santa himself, making the season feel more special and full of wonder.

By using festive stationary and illustrations you can really personalize your letters.

Looking for other fundraiser ideas? We have sports fundraiser ideas, season fundraiser ideas, and more!

11. Polar Plunge

If you have adventurous supporters, plan a Polar Plunge. The way to make money during a polar plunge is to treat it like a pledge drive. Have your fundraisers take donations in exchange for them doing the polar plunge.

“Hey Grandma, I’m doing a polar plunge, are you willing to donate $50 to my basketball team if I successfully complete it?”

Things like that. Polar plunges are inherently risky, so make sure you have a paramedic on standby, are building your polar plunge around the age of your fundraisers (so the younger, the less intense the polar plunge, like just stepping into cold water), and your fundraiser participants are cleared by a doctor to participate.

12. Holiday Crowdfunding Campaign

Crowdfunding is simply collecting money online through donation pages. What makes crowdfunding through digital fundraising platforms like Teamfi’s digital crowdfunding is the ability to build a campaign with customized fundraising pages.

Your group gets your own custom fundraising page. When you share on social media your logo and mission pops up.

13. Christmas Tree Disposal

When the holiday season ends, those people with artificial trees have it easy. They just put their tree away and it’s back into the garage until next year.

If you have a real tree though, disposal is difficult and a potentially messy affair.

Offer to collect and recycle Christmas trees for a set donation to your organization. This simple service is both valuable and can work as a fundraiser.

It’s well worth $100. Older kids can help, but definitely one of those that adult supervision and a good place to take care of old trees can be provided.

14. Christmas Cookie-Decorating Contest

Cookies again? Well they’re popular during the holiday season.

We talked about selling cookies, now lets talk about decorating cookies.

A fundraiser more built for younger kids, rent out a room, or utilize a room that you already have access to and have a cookie decorating night for your program.

Each mother-son, father-daughter, or family gets 10 cookies to decorate with icing, enters one in for a small prize, and of course gets to keep them all at the end.

How to make money? Encourage a donation of $20 each toward a fundraiser from families to participate. A very low yielding fundraiser, but a lot of fun.

15. Fill My Fundraiser

With a variety of options, fill my fundraisers are simple and effective fundraisers available both in template form and digital form.

We have all sorts of fill my fundraisers like fill my singlet, fill my bow, fill my megaphone, fill my football, fill my baseball, fill my basketball, fill my volleyball, fill my soccer ball, and we’re adding more every week!

16. Christmas Breakfast Buffet

Similar to a pancake breakfast or a spaghetti dinner, a Christmas Breakfast Buffet would take place before Christmas Break as a way to bring your organization or team together before the holidays.

Your organization makes money by charging per person.

17. Make Your Donation a Christmas Present

Encourage people to give back by donating to a fundraiser. By having a fundraiser during the holiday season, it means maybe your Grandma is more willing to donate a higher amount. 

For example, suggest that donors give the same amount they would normally spend on a present for each child or family member. In return, your team or organization can send them a personalized thank-you card or digital certificate they can wrap and place under the tree.

18. Wreath Sale

Partner with a local florist or supplier to sell Christmas wreaths and garlands. While there are national providers, using a community based partner would best serve your constituents and those locals would surely appreciate it.

Add customization options like bows, lights, or team colors at a higher cost and help with delivery.

Say you buy a wreath for $20 and sell it for $40. Add that up over say 50 orders and that’s $1,000 for your fundraiser.

19. Holiday Talent Show

Invite students, teammates, or community members to show off their talents in a festive performance night. 

Charge admission and sell snacks or hot chocolate during intermission. People love supporting local talent, and it builds community spirit.

Tips for a Successful Christmas Fundraiser

• Start Early: Begin promoting your event in mid-November so supporters can plan ahead.
  
• Add Visuals: Use lights, holiday music, and decorations to set the tone.
  
• Keep It Simple: The best ideas are easy to explain and execute. Don’t run too many fundraisers at once either, two at a time is a sweet spot..
  
• Share Gratitude: Post thank-you photos or videos afterward to highlight your donors’ impact.
  
  

Make Your Christmas Fundraiser Count

Christmas is a season built around generosity, connection, and gratitude. No matter which idea you choose, remember that if you’re fundraising, that there are hundreds of other fundraisers going on during the holiday season at the same time.

Putting a personal touch on reaching out and providing why you’re fundraising can go a long way, and we’re here to help for any digital fundraising needs.

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