# How to Plan a Holiday Fun Run: Jingle Bells to New Year's > A plain guide to a jingle bell, Santa or New Year's Day fun run: dates, themes, a toy drive, cold and ice, gift entries, race day and a short-notice plan. - **Author:** Kelby Dover, Founder, Run This - **Published:** 2026-11-06 - **Category:** Race Directors - **Topics:** holiday races, jingle bell run, santa run, new year's day race, fun run, race planning, charity run, race directors - **Reading time:** 9 min - **Article:** https://runthis.run/articles/how-to-plan-a-holiday-fun-run To plan a holiday fun run, pick your date first, because December weekends fill up with parties, travel and other holiday events, and many city offices slow down at the end of the year. Choose a theme people can dress for (jingle bells, Santa suits, ugly sweaters or a New Year's Day start), offer a 5K plus a short walk or kids' dash, and open online registration as soon as you have a date. Recruit volunteers early, plan for cold or icy weather, and keep race morning simple: a warm check-in spot, a clearly marked course, and hot chocolate at the finish. ### Why host a holiday fun run? People want something festive to do together in December. Families are home, friends are in town, and nobody needs a training plan to run in a Santa hat. The theme does a lot of your marketing for you, and it pairs naturally with a toy drive or a food bank. ### What date and time work best? For a jingle bell or Santa run, the first two or three weekends of December are usually the easiest, before school breaks and travel pull people away. A weekend morning works well for families, and a start between 8 and 10 AM gives the day a little time to warm up. Keep the course open long enough for walkers: a 5K takes most of them an hour or more. An evening lights run needs more planning: lighting at the start and finish, reflective vests for course volunteers, and permission to be out after dark. For a New Year's Day race, plenty of your runners were up late, so a late-morning start is kinder. Few people want to pick up a packet on New Year's Eve, so hand out bibs on race morning or earlier in the week. ### What does a 3-month holiday run plan look like? ### About 3 months out (September) - Choose your course and measure it. - Ask your city's special events office, parks department or landowner what they need and how much notice they want for a December date. - Ask what insurance they require, in writing, and get quotes. - Pick your theme and write a simple budget. ### About 2 months out (October) - Submit your permit application if you need one, before offices slow down for the holidays. - Open registration and start sharing your race link. - Ask local businesses about sponsoring, and call the charity if you plan a toy, coat or food drive. - Order shirts, hats or bells now. Print shops get busy before the holidays. ### About 1 month out (November) - Recruit volunteers and give each one a job. Thanksgiving week eats a week of planning, so start before it. - Order bibs, cups, water, signs and portable toilets (if there are no restrooms). - Plan packet pickup, timing and results. ### Race week - Email runners the start time, parking, packet pickup, what to wear and the weather plan. - Confirm every volunteer. - Walk the course the day before, mark every turn, and look for icy spots. **On Run This:** you can set early-bird prices that step up on dates you choose. Free races are free. On a paid race, runners pay about 5% + $1 per registration at checkout, and you keep 100% of your price. ### The holidays are only weeks away. Can I still put one on? Yes, if you keep it small and simple. - **This week:** pick a course where permission comes fast, like a school track, a church or business campus, or a park path, and get it in writing. Ask your city whether you need a permit, and open registration the same week. - **Next week:** recruit volunteers before travel plans fill up, and call the charity if you're collecting toys, coats or food. - **Two weeks out:** buy cups, water, signs, cones and a first aid kit. Skip custom shirts. A bag of jingle bells or a costume contest can be the fun instead. - **Race week:** send runners one clear email with everything they need. If December is too tight, make it a New Year's Day run. That buys you a few more weeks. ### How do I pick a theme? Pick one idea and lean all the way in. - **Jingle bell run:** hand every runner a set of bells at check-in. - **Santa run:** include a Santa suit or hat with each entry, and get the group photo of a street full of Santas. - **Ugly sweater run:** hold a sweater contest at the finish with a few silly categories. - **New Year's Day run:** a "first run of the year" prize, or a board where runners write their goal for the year. **On Run This:** add bells, hats or Santa suits as giveaways, with sizes where you need them, and inventory is tracked as runners pick them. Tick "Everyone must pick this" and every runner chooses a size when they sign up. Let runners vote on the hat color with a poll on your event page. ### How do I make it family friendly? Offer a 5K for runners, a 1-mile walk for grandparents and strollers, and a kids' dash (an "elf dash" is hard to resist) a few minutes before or after the main race. Put Santa at the finish for photos. Decide early whether strollers and dogs are welcome, check that your venue allows them, and put the answer on your race page. **On Run This:** add each distance as its own option with its own start time and price. A kids' dash can have age limits so only kids can sign up. A parent can register the whole family in one cart with one payment, and kids can be added as dependents without needing their own account. ### Should my holiday run raise money? Many do. A few tips: - **Talk to the charity first.** Ask what they need most (new toys, kids' coats, canned food), how drop-off works and whether they can bring bins or a truck. - **Make giving easy.** Ask runners to bring an item, and offer an online donation for people who forget. - **Share a goal.** "Fill the sleigh" or a dollar goal gives people something to push toward. **On Run This:** add a fundraiser with a Donate button and an optional progress bar toward your goal. Donations cost about 4% + 50¢, and donors can choose to cover that fee so the cause gets every cent. You can let each runner raise money with their own fundraising link. When you add the charity as a charity partner, donations go straight to its own account. ### Can people give an entry as a gift? Yes, and December is the month for it. **On Run This:** turn on gift registrations for your paid distances and a Gift button appears under Register on your race page. The buyer gets a printable gift card, and the person they bought it for registers with their own details and waiver when they redeem it. You can sell gifts for a shorter window, like the weeks before the holidays. Each gift holds a spot in its distance, and your race receives the entry money when the gift is bought. ### What should I give runners? - Bells, a Santa hat or a warm beanie (more useful in December than another shirt) - Hot chocolate and cookies at the finish - Prizes for the costume contest and age group winners **On Run This:** offer items as free giveaways or as priced merch with sizes. Runners who already registered can buy items later from their registration. ### How do I plan for cold, snow and ice? - Find a warm or covered spot for check-in and for people waiting to start. - Check the course on race morning for ice, especially on bridges and in the shade, and have salt or sand on hand. - Remind runners in your race-week email to dress in layers and bring a dry layer for after. - Decide ahead of time what weather would make you delay, shorten or cancel, and tell runners where you will post updates. **On Run This:** you can email all of your registrants from your dashboard and schedule the email ahead of time. If you need to postpone or cancel, your race page shows a clear banner and registered runners are alerted automatically. ### How do I handle check-in and packet pickup? Cold fingers make slow lines. Hold packet pickup earlier in the week if you can, and put your check-in table somewhere warm. **On Run This:** volunteers check runners in from their own phones with a code, no account needed. They can search by name or bib, or scan a runner's QR code. If your fun run does not use bibs, you can turn bibs off at check-in. ### How do I time it and share results? Runners like seeing their time, especially the Santa who finished first. A kids' dash usually does not need timing at all. **On Run This:** the Run This Stopwatch is free, and any volunteer can run it from a phone. When your distances start at different times, each one gets its own start. Times feed your race results, which you can publish for runners to see and share. You can post your race photos for free, in albums, so every costume shot is easy to find. ### Holiday run race-day checklist - Course marked and checked for ice, with a volunteer at every turn - Warm spot for check-in, with your runner list, bibs and pins - Bells, hats or costumes ready to hand out - Toy, coat or food drive bins set up - Water, hot chocolate and cups at the finish - Timing tested before the start - Lights and reflective vests for an evening race - Kids' dash area set up away from the finish chute - Contest judges picked and prizes ready - Restrooms open or portable toilets in place - First aid kit, an emergency plan, and your permit and insurance papers ### Frequently asked questions ### How far ahead should I plan a holiday run? About three months is a good target, mostly for the permit and shirts. A small run on private land can come together in about four weeks. ### Do runners need to sign a waiver? It is a good idea, and many insurers and venues require one. On Run This, every registration includes the Run This liability waiver, and you can add up to two of your own. ### Can I keep the same date next year? Yes. On Run This, once the race is over, Renew sets up next year and keeps your page, your link and everyone who saved your race. It picks the same day of the week by default, so for a New Year's Day race, tap Same date. Ready to start? See the step-by-step plan at [https://runthis.run/start-a-race](https://runthis.run/start-a-race), or read [How to Organize a 5K Fun Run](https://runthis.run/articles/how-to-organize-a-5k-fun-run) and [How to Time a 5K Without a Timing Company](https://runthis.run/articles/how-to-time-a-5k-without-a-timing-company). Want something to send your runners? Share the [Holiday Race Guide](https://runthis.run/articles/holiday-race-guide). Planning a holiday run and stuck on something? [Tell me](https://runthis.run/contact). I read every one. --- Source: [https://runthis.run/articles/how-to-plan-a-holiday-fun-run](https://runthis.run/articles/how-to-plan-a-holiday-fun-run) — data from Run This (runthis.run).