You can feel the holiday spirit in the air as it begins to surround all of us this winter season. It’s certainly a time where we bank in the love and light of our families and friends, by simply spending time with them as well as giving those gifts on everyone’s lists.

For many, the holidays are a time to sit back and relax, but it’s also the perfect opportunity to put your needs after others and make sure all have a chance for a fantastic season.

With a little forethought and planning, it can also be the perfect time to boost the popularity of your charity fundraising event.

People are often more generous around the holidays and will naturally want to give more.  We know we’re going to have such a great time with our friends and family that we simply want to do our part to help as many others as we possibly can.

And although this is the case, you’ll find that if you can take the time to put a holiday twist on your charity fundraising event, you’ll see even more activity.

Everyone loves the holiday season, so integrate it within your event and you make it instantly appealing to a huge audience – those that are interested in it in general and those who have come across it because of their love for all things holidays!

If you’ve already got your charity event in place, it may take a little more thought to put a holiday twist on it, but it’s not an impossibility.  With every charity fundraising event, it’s simply about looking at how you can make it more noticeable and popular.

Make It Obvious

Take the annual Santa Run as an example.  This is happening all around the world, from Horsham in West Sussex, UK right through to Las Vegas, USA and Kingston, Tasmania. This makes it funny, recognizable to a large group and something many will want to participate in.

Sure, this is going to attract people and make them donate itself, but as soon as you stipulate that every runner has to be dressed as Santa, you bring a whole new dimension to the event.

This type of idea can be used during Christmas, Hanukkah, Chinese New Year and others season as a way to bring everyone together and help those relate is classic. Take the idea of Santa or other holiday icons with a dare idea to gain more recognition. This does need to be timed well though so there’s plenty of wiggle room for fundraising before the holiday actually takes place. Generic winter celebration-themed ideas are great too.

Be Different

But it doesn’t all have to be about festive costumes or in fact anything in particular to do with the holiday season, as shown by the Redcar Boxing Day Dip.

Taking place in Redcar in the north east of England, at 11am on the 26th December, hundreds of people take to the freezing cold North Sea to raise money for a variety of charities in their swimming costumes or fancy dress.

Getting bigger and raising more money by the year, it’s a perfect example of how a charity fundraising event can have a holiday twist without the physical bells and whistles.  The main focus of the holiday season is to spend time with your friends and family, all wrapped up and warm inside the house – these people not only forgo that time, but they jump into waters that are literally freezing cold in nothing more than a pair of shorts and a t-shirt!

Bring Something New To Something Old

Another great way to bring a holiday approach to your charity fundraising event is to take something traditional that everyone knows and put a completely new spin on it.

For instance, many recognize the traditional festive nativity scene and although they didn’t do it to raise money for charity, the Oasis Church in Florida broke the world record for having the most nativities on display in one location, with 2,150.

Something that could have been a fantastic opportunity to raise a substantial amount of money for charity with a few changes, the event gained a considerable amount of media coverage in both the local and international press, all because they put a different spin on something so many know so well.

Proving it doesn’t have to be a hugely elaborate event and that it’s more in the planning and forethought, as with everything, it’s the foundations that are put in place first which allow for something successful to be built.

The holiday season may be a time for relaxing with family, but you can’t overlook the fact that it’s also a time for giving and the season of goodwill.  Combine this with a bit of preparation and your charity fundraising event could not only have a fantastic holiday twist put on it, but it could be more successful than if it were carried out at any other point of the year.