For many students, winter break means having to take off work to go home or otherwise go out of town, during a month where our wallets are already strained from Holiday shopping. A month-long break in the middle of the winter isn't conducive to the short-term camp counselor or ice cream-scooper jobs that are possible in the summer, but there are ways to at least re-coop some of that money spent on presents. These ideas won't make you a millionaire overnight, but they can be done around your mad dash to see friends and family, and may help you stay afloat:

1. Mechanical Turk

Mechanical Turk (MTurk) is an Amazon-owned crowdsourcing website in which requesters post tasks (known at HITs) that users can complete for a specified amount of money. Many of them are quick surveys or data-entry assignments worth a couple of cents, but a requester might post a larger patch of them, which can really add up. Money earned can then be transferred to Amazon Payments, and put toward Amazon purchases or deposited right into your bank account. Pro Tip: There are longer surveys, video recording, and writing assignments, but be wary of those who request too intensive of work for the money they're offering. The Turkopticonbrowser extension and message boards like r/HitsWorthTurkingFor can help you determine which tasks are worth your time.

2. Swagbucks

Swagbucks likewise lets users answer surveys and complete tasks that pay out points that can be put toward money (albeit in the form of gift cards). Pro Tip: Their surveys are often hard to qualify for, so this website may be most helpful for those who are doing some belated holiday shopping for their second cousin's stepsister's boyfriend's dog, as shopping through the website will earn you higher point payouts that can be the equivalent of cash back.

3. Perk

If you were going to spend your break playing Trivia Crack anyway, and can tolerate some annoying ads, the Perk Pop Quiz App is a fun way to (slowly but surely) earn points that you can ultimately put towards gift cards or PayPal payments. You can choose the quiz categories (so no sports-category pitfalls a la Trivial Pursuit) and if you write a question they utilize, you'll get points as well. Pro Tip: Other Perk Apps will reward points to the same account for watching videos, playing a scratch-off game, etc. Consider a bigger SD card for your phone so you can download them all.

4. Shoveling Snow for Neighbors

As someone who doesn't care for the outdoors and really loathes snow, this option isn't for me (hence all the online earning I've discussed) but if you are somewhere with lots of snow and for some reason enjoy such nonsense, then I'm sure there are people in your area who would love to have their cars shoveled out when they realize that idyllic White Christmas might keep them from getting to grandma's for dinner. Pro Tip: Well, I'd say don't do it, but do what you want.

5. Bing Rewards

Okay, this one won't help you pay that electric bill, but you use a search engine anyway, right? Get off your Google high horse and reap the benefits of Bing Rewards. Get points for your phone and PC searches, for exploring curated content, and for completing Bing quizzes. Redeem your points for the likes of Xbox gift cards for when you're snowed in, or Starbucks ones for when you need that post-shoveling hot cocoa. Pro Tip: By all means, use a throwaway email to register, but be sure to check it - every once in a while, especially around holidays, they'll send you emails with bonus ways of earning points.

6. Babysitting

If you're not in school, plenty of kids aren't either. If you're good with kids and have connections to local families, you may be able to line up some babysitting gigs. If you're willing to spend NYE babysitting, you may be able to earn even more. So re-connect with your inner child and get ready to watch the ball drop on TV while drinking sparkling grape juice. Act really excited that you get to stay up until midnight, and the kids will follow suit. Pro Tip: Private schools often have really long winter breaks, so if you find a family who sends their kids to private school, the babysitting gig might take you all the way through when you have to go back to school. If you leverage how much the parents pay on tuition in your hourly rate negotiations, make sure you do so tactfully.

There are countless other ways to make a little money over winter break. If you need the money to pay bills, I hope my advice is helpful. If you're just bored over winter break and looking for money to burn, make sure you buy something wonderfully ridiculous with it. An adult llama? That sounds about right.