Winter is a love it or hate it season, but even if you hate it you can’t spend three months hibernating, especially not if you have a job, responsibilities and family.
The good news is that you can enjoy winter by spending quality time with your family. If you think that there is nothing fun to do when it’s snowing outside, you’re wrong. Here are six awesome ideas for family activities for both indoor and outdoor setting.
Sledding
This one is a no-brainer. All the kids will enjoy a good old sliding down the hill. The adults too will have lots of fun rediscovering their inner child. The good thing about sledding is that you don’t have to use the big Santa-inspired sleds. You can go for the simpler and far more affordable option, such as plastic snow disks or even regular plastic bags. The most important thing to remember here is that you need to dress well (in layers) and wear heavy waterproof boots.
Snowball fight
Poor man’s laser tag or paintball. Just kidding, snowballing can be just as exciting as the two previously mentioned activities, and even twice as creative. You have the chance to build your own fortress to shield you from the “enemy” attacks, build a tunnel to reach your foes and surprise them, and devise a clever strategy to crush them all. When we put it this way, it sounds like a phenomenal pastime, right? Both you and the kids will have a blast.
Snow builders
If you’ve tried your luck with the previous activity and noticed that you’re actually quite good at building things out of snow, this one is a great suggestion for you. Start with something simple, like building a snowman. Later, each family member can build a snowman that represents them or another member of the family. Also, if you’re especially crafty, you can try coming up with a theme (e.g. Snow White and the seven dwarfs) and make a winter artwork together.
Snowman breakfast
Moving on to indoor activities, family breakfast is a very important part of family bonding. And during the winter, you can make that breakfast even more entertaining and inclusive, by preparing it together. You can all put on your aprons, and someone can mix, someone chop, someone bake pancakes. Thanks to appliances like Kenwood stand mixer your kids can participate much more easily, but you should still supervise them. Oh, and we forgot to mention the most important thing – the pancakes should be snowman-shaped. Let the kids express their creativity with decorations.
Winter movie marathon
You can enjoy watching some Christmas classics together. Depending on your kids’ age your choice can range from A Charlie Brown Christmas and Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer to Gremlins and How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Make the atmosphere cozier and more wintery by drawing the curtains and devising a snack bar before the movie (popcorns, nachos and dip…). You can also prepare meals themed around the movies you’re watching.
Get creative
A snow blizzard is a perfect opportunity to stay in and prepare a little “crafternoon”. Get some supplies, watch YouTube tutorials together, and come up with interesting ideas. Since this is the season of holidays, you can make your own Christmas ornaments, cards and garlands. You can also wander off of this Christmas theme and make items independently of the season, such as puppets for the puppet show (another fantastic winter pastime idea), puzzles, play-dough characters, soap bars, origami, artwork, etc. Just make sure the tasks and the supplies are age-appropriate to prevent any potential injuries.
Winter doesn’t have to be boring or scary, especially if you have your family to enjoy this season with. Try out these activities and you will see how whimsical it can be.