As the first snow falls and Christmas memes and holiday songs approach us with a bang, it’s easy to find some good activities to partake in during this cold season. From book reading to snow shoveling, winter activities create a chance to enjoy the coldness of the outdoors and the warmth of the indoors, while still embracing the season emotionally. Winter fun is a rare fun to have, as snow doesn’t fall in every corner of the world. But, as the cold weather and the atmosphere surrounding it cannot be easily ignored, what activities are there to be active in when the season strikes?
Some people prefer the warmth of the inside, rather than the coldness of the outside. It’s fantastic, as there are a lot of activities to enjoy in both worlds. Some of the indoor winter activities during winter focus more on the psychological side of things. Drinking hot cocoa to relax after work or growing some plants inside to remind oneself that spring is just around the corner are only a few of the best indoor activities to do. Outdoor winter activities focus more on the physical side. Snowboarding down a small hill or a large mountain, building snowmen, and creating snow angels are some of the most popular activities involving the beautiful thing called snow.
But with only 3 months of winter and so many fun winter activities to indulge in, it would be wise to create a list of the most fun activities and do them! Looking to move the kids outside with some winter activities for kids? Or maybe just want some snow activities to busy yourself with before the snow melts away? Take a look at the list below to see what warm and cold activities you can try out. Upvote the ones that sound and seem the most fun. Comment below if you have already partaken in them, and share some stories that you want to share!
#1 Bake Cookies
Baking is making something unique from the comforts of your kitchen. With the not-so-surprising rise of cookies during the winter season, ovens in the factories are putting out huge amounts of cookies, but nothing beats the taste of a homemade cookie. Also, nothing beats the feeling of seeing how your cookies are enjoyed by your family and friends.
#2 Go Sledding
The highest mountain or the lowest hill can be sled on. The bigger the height, the more fun the activity. So if there is a snowy hill near you, grab your small sled and a bunch of friends, and have a blast going down it.
#3 Go For A Walk In A Pine Forest
Nature’s beauty is only enhanced by the snow it gets every winter. As the snow falls, trees get covered and this snow coat perfectly suits the spiky pine trees. So, if there is a pine forest near you or a small drive away, why not enjoy a walk in it and see just how beautiful that forest near you is?
#4 See The Nutcracker Ballet
A ballet is a perfect showcase of how beautiful dancing can be when performed by true professionals. The Nutcracker ballet is one of the more seasonal ballet shows. With the story surrounding the Christmas Eve celebration, it is a must-see at least once in life.
#5 Go Stargazing
When the night sky becomes clear and the black sky is dotted with millions of stars, why not stop for a moment and look up at the starry sky above? With so much to see and explore with the eyes, this activity can only be enhanced by a telescope. But even without it, stargazing is one of the most beautiful things to enjoy.
#6 Perfect Your Chili Recipe
Hot food beats any cold wind that could blow your way. A beloved dish of winter, a bowl of chili can warm the stomach of a person. If you ever go to a dinner party during winter, don’t be surprised how much chili is served to the visitors.
#7 Have A Bonfire
Why not enjoy a nice fire outside, to see how the snow slowly melts away and emits a nice feeling of warmth? While bonfires are more associated with summer activities, nothing is stopping you from lighting up one during the winter season. Of course, safety must be accounted for.
#8 Go On A Winter Photo Scavenger Hunt
The winter season can provide some beautiful scenes to look forward to. As the snowy wonderland sets in, sights that look beautiful during the warm seasons become much more beautiful as the landscape and trees become covered in the great wonder that is snow.
#9 Take Pics Of Your Pet In The Snow
Cat or dog – we all love our pets in some way. We buy them toys and help them with their health when the time comes. As winter comes only for 3 months, pets want to enjoy it too, so why not enjoy it together? Take some pics of your pets in the snow to remember them and to show your friends too.
#10 Make Homemade Hot Chocolate
Hot chocolate is a staple for the winter season. For an indoor activity, you can make yourself a good old-fashioned hot chocolate, or, if you are looking to spruce up this drink, put some whipped cream on top of it and enjoy every sweet sip of this hot beverage.
#11 Build A Snowman
Run away to the winter wonderland by building a variety of different snowmen, who you design yourself. Built from snow and a few miscellaneous things from home, the snowman structure depends on one’s creativity.
#12 Camp Out In The Family Room
Why not have some fun with the whole family? Just by simply putting up a tent and pushing some furniture together, you can create a perfect place for a family to hang out. When the family is together, it’s sometimes hard to tell how fast time is passing by.
#13 Drive A Snowmobile
The problem with snow is that there is a lot of it. Sometimes, the basic activity of traveling can become a hard process to do and a snowmobile may come to the rescue at this point. Fast and mobile, it’s not only convenient but also fun to ride.
#14 Spend The Night In A Cozy Cabin
Sometimes, the best getaway from urban society is to run away to a small cabin in the woods and enjoy the winter season there. While more associated with horror movies, nothing beats the feeling of staying a night in a cabin while harsh weather roars outside.
#15 Make An Ice Sculpture
Sculpting is not only linked with wood or marble material, but also with ice. While not easy to learn, there are a lot of lessons that can teach the basic art of ice sculpting and awaken the artist in you.
#16 Donate Toys
Nothing puts a smile on a kid’s face like seeing them opening up a present which contains their most wanted toy in the world. Not everyone is blessed with this feeling, so it is important to not forget the many children who are unable to get their toy this Christmas and to help them feel this feeling at least once in their life.
#17 Have A Snowball Fight
Snow is either hated or liked. If you are more of the grumpy ones, why not let it out through the snow and have a snowball fight with your friends? Just make sure to make it soft, no one wants to have a black eye afterward.
#18 Wear Fuzzy Slippers At Home
During winter, most of us will spend a big portion of our time in our homes, cozying up and enjoying the warmth of the fires in the fireplace. To add to this combination, slippers are a perfect clothing option to wear when nothing else fits the atmosphere inside.
#19 Visit An Indoor Farmer’s Market
Fresh fruit or vegetables are all that is needed to make the dish you are planning to make the most perfect winter dish you could ever taste. If one wants to find them, it’s worth looking into the indoor farming markets that keep sprouting up around the world. Warm and toasty, indoor farmer’s markets are the perfect place to mingle with other people, but also shop for the products you need.
#20 Go Birdwatching
While most birds leave for warmer climates, some stay and create the perfect chance to catch them with a camera out in the open. A calm outdoor activity, birdwatching is both relaxing and fun and doesn’t require a lot of equipment to partake in.
#21 Start A Scrapbook
Memories should be kept close and photos should be accumulated and collected neatly. Winter creates the chance to put these photos in a single book, where photos and memories reside, waiting to be seen for the upcoming times.
#22 Read By The Fire
A red blazing hot mess that is a fire is one of the best counters to the cold weather. Warm and inviting, it perfectly complements reading books. With such a variety of books to choose from these days, it might be a good time to catch up on some of the literary works that you might have missed.
#23 Make A Pot Of Mulled Wine
Wine is the perfect alcoholic beverage to enjoy if you are legally allowed to drink it. But why not spice it up for the winter season? With so many different ingredients available in the supermarket, you can spice up a batch of wine with so many flavors, it’s crazy to even think about it.
#24 Knit A Scarf Or Hat
Nothing can beat the feeling of wearing a hand-knitted sweater at a Christmas party and seeing just how many eyes get jealous. With so many tutorials online to learn from, when the cold weather hits, you could have the best opportunity to learn this craft from the warmth of your living room.
#25 Make Apple Cider
Apple cider is only second to hot chocolate when talking about the best drinks for the winter season. So why not save up some apples or buy some in the market and try to make your apple cider? With the ability to spice it up, there are limitless possibilities to create this drink.
#26 Do A Family Winter Photo Shoot
Photos are a way of seeing how the past looked and taking a family photo during winter is one of the nicest activities to do. While the process of including everyone in the photo is sometimes the hardest step, when the picture is taken and smiles are shown, the photo will stay with you for a very long time.
#27 Learn To Snowboard
One of the more popular sports to try out that only works on snow, snowboarding requires little to learn, but a lot to master. Try it out with baby steps, from the handling of the board to more complex moves, that should impress friends and other snowboarders.
#28 Make A Gingerbread House
While every house is built during the non-snowing seasons, this house is a special one. This house is one most commonly built during the snowy winter season. Built from sweets and hard work, some cookies might get broken and eaten while you try to build the sweet walls of the gingerbread house.
#29 Volunteer At A Food Kitchen
Some are fortunate enough to enjoy this holiday season with family and friends in the warmth of a house, while others are less fortunate. If you have nothing to do this season, why not help out the people that need that help? Visit the local food kitchen, maybe they need some helping hands.
#30 Do A Jigsaw Puzzle
Only fun times can be had with a jigsaw puzzle. Time-consuming, but fun, Jigsaw puzzles are the perfect way of exercising the brain indoors. If you are up for the challenge, why not pick out a themed winter puzzle?
#31 Watch All The Oscar Winning Movies
With so many movies released every year, sometimes only Oscar winners are worth watching. As snow falls and cold weather sets in, movies warm up the hearts of cinema lovers. Wanted to see the best picture? Maybe it’s on one of the many streaming services you can use!
#32 Have A Pajama Day
When the nights are long and boring, it’s not surprising to get the time of day mixed up. Is it morning already, or is it still night? Well, if you are a wearer of pajamas, why not wear them all day and make it your pajama day?
#33 DIY Snow Globes
The most common decoration on a Christmas tree? Globes. So why not spice up the globes you are planning to use with a little bit of personality? By utilizing only glitter and other things, you can make a DIY snow globe that could be your masterpiece.
#34 Bake A Loaf Of Bread
Bread is the simplest thing you can bake, but also the tastiest. By mixing simple ingredients, you can create the greatest dish ever, which will perfectly fit not only the table of your next dinner, but also every meal after it.
#35 Make A Pine Cone Wreath For Your Front Door
Every house should have at least some decorations up. Small decorations sometimes have more power to them. So if you have a glue gun and some pine cones around the outside of your house, grab a few and make some winter wreaths out of them. If you don’t feel creative about it, look up some ideas online, there are plenty of them.
#36 Donate Warm Mittens & Jackets To A Homeless Shelter
Not everyone can afford winter clothing, and if you have an overabundance of them, why not donate them? Simple and kind, help the homeless people of your town by giving the warmth that mittens and jackets can provide.
#37 Find Your Favorite Tea
While some choose to stay warm with hot chocolate or coffee this season, why not explore the wonderful world of tasty teas? With so many flavors to choose from, tea is the perfect way of expressing not only your ideas but also warming the hearts of your friends and family. And when you find the perfect mix – the feeling will be the greatest.
#38 Make A Bird Feeder
For animals, winter is a hard time for birds to scavenge food. There aren’t a lot of sources to choose from. To help this group of animals, why not make and install a bird feeder near a home? It doesn’t require much to help a bird out.
#39 Make Your Own Tea
You can make your very own herbal tea! With the help of dried herbs like peppermint, rosemary, and chamomile from your garden (or you can purchase fresh herbs from the grocery store and dry them), use a tea ball to steep your DIY loose-leaf tea and store it in a glass canister for freshness.
#40 Grow Indoor Plants
With so much snow and coldness outside, it might be a good idea to grow a small garden inside your home. A plant on a table or near the balcony door can spruce up the room and even provide some positive benefits, like slightly cleaner air.
#41 Go Ice Fishing
If you are a fisher during the spring and summer seasons, why not enjoy this activity during the winter too? Find yourself a lake, pick up a fishing rod and a drill, and go fish on the frigid ice of a nice large lake. Why not bring a friend also, to pass the time with words?
#42 Go Dogsledding
Winter can be enjoyed not only by humans but also by our closest friends, our dogs, too. Man’s best friend is also a great winter animal, and with a few lined up and attached to a sled, you can venture out to feel the cold wind of the wild.
#43 Take A Snowshoe Hike
Put on some snowshoes, make some traveling food and go on a hike through the snowy world that is the winter season. Why not go to the lake on foot? Why not enjoy the atmosphere of a woody, snowy area? Of course, you have to be careful when going hiking during the winter season, so go with a friend for that added fun and safety.
#44 Soak In A Natural Hot Springs
With a mix of cold wind and warm water, natural hot springs are a luxury not found in every corner of the world. Beautiful during the summer and welcoming during the winter, natural hot springs are a perfect place to relax. So if there is a natural hot spring near you, be sure to enjoy it during this winter season.
#45 Do The Polar Bear Plunge
Winter provides one of the best opportunities for the polar bear challenge. The idea is simple – a person has to jump into an outside body of water during the winter season. Some people do it for fun, but others have taken the opportunity to do this challenge to benefit a charity of their choice.
#46 Ice Skate On A Lake
With skating being one of the major winter Olympic sports, it’s also one of the more popular outdoor activities to partake in during the winter season. With only a frozen lake, skates, and some skills needed, one can learn the art of skating and impress all the friends around.
#47 Decorate Sugar Cookies
Sweets are a good way of making a good dish become the best dish. The tradition of cookie decorating has become one of the more popular activities that includes not only you, but also the whole family. So if you are looking for a way to connect with the people you saw a long time ago, why not decorate some cookies?
#48 Have A Game Night
Game nights and fun nights. No one can doubt that a fun game night can change the mood of the whole group involved. Why not play some winter-themed board games? With the rise of trivia games, you don’t even need a board to play! Add a prize or two and you can be sure that every member will be eager to play.
#49 Bake A Pie
The smell of freshly baked pie makes any person crave sugar and sweets. Homemade pies are the perfect way of transforming a boring winter evening into one that will be remembered for weeks. So if you have any apples, lemons, or other fruits in your fridge, be sure to bake a pie. Just don’t be surprised if it disappears quite quickly.
#50 Stick To An Indoor Workout Routine
Exercising can’t be ignored, even during the winter season. While most people begin to exercise after the New Year, no one is stopping you from exercising as the first snow falls. With mostly healthy benefits, exercising indoors while it’s snowing is a euphoric feeling to feel.
#51 Sleep In An Ice Hotel
Sleeping indoors is nice when we are surrounded by warmth and comfy beds, but why not sleep in a cold place called an ice hotel? Each year, in different countries, ice hotels rise where you can spend the night in a minus Celsius environment. Sounds chilling.
#52 Create A Winter Song Playlist
There is no way of ignoring it – winter songs are coming back into style. So to prepare for it, and not listen to that same song every day, make a playlist of winter songs that you like the most. Maybe even share it with your friends and family, and see how they react when their favorite song gets featured on it.
#53 Make Your New Year Bucket List
One of the major winter celebrations is the New Year. It’s the point that makes you most think “What should I do next year?” Well, to be ready for the next year, why not make a bucket list of the things you want to do this upcoming year? Just make it realistic, and take it easy, it’s not a competition.
#54 Take A Warm Bubble Bath
Relaxing is all about removing the worries of the winter and embracing the warmth of a hot bubble bath. Simple and elegant, a warm bubble bath might just be what you need to rid yourself of the worries of work.
#55 Keep A Gratitude Journal
The winter season is the season of thank yous. It’s sometimes hard to keep a list of gratitude. From the small things like a tasty cup of hot chocolate to the simple good gestures from a friend, it’s important to remember the good times by writing them down in a journal.
#56 Binge Watch A TV Series
While the movie season of summer and spring is over, TV shows are getting more views as the weather becomes colder. Have a series you wanted to watch for the year, but never found the time? Open up Netflix or other streaming services and watch some of the greatest series in the entertainment world.
#57 Take A Cooking Class
The heat of the stoves in the kitchen is surely able to beat the coldness of the outdoors. When knives and fire are involved, some people can get lost in the organized chaos that is in the kitchen. So why not take some cooking classes and learn some dishes not only for Christmas Eve, but also for the other upcoming seasons?
#58 Have An Indoor Picnic
Snow is surely not a barrier to enjoying summer activities inside. Have a craving for just sitting on a blanket and enjoying the food? Why not have a picnic inside your living room or other room and just enjoy the moment for what it is – a nice memory to remember.
#59 Do A Random Act Of Kindness
Kindness does not have a certain sum or worth, but its effects are felt by the person who was at the receiving end. With Christmas being the celebration of giving, be sure to do an act of kindness for those who need it the most. Donate some food, spend a day with an old granny — the possibilities are limitless.
#60 Go Bowling
A strike is only popular when it happens in a bowling alley and it involves some pegs and a heavy bowling ball. This activity can break, make and fortify friendships. So if you are out during a snowy evening, be sure to call up some friends and go for a match at the local bowling alley.
#61 Catch Snowflakes On Your Tongue
A small thing like a single snowflake in itself is an interesting thing. When every snowflake is unique in its own way, why not catch some with your tongue? A simple activity of just standing and catching can be fun and a great time killer. Enjoy as the small, cold piece of water soon melts away on your tongue.
#62 Try A New Restaurant
Winter is just asking us to stay inside and enjoy the food in our fridges. But why not enjoy it outside, in other restaurants? Either alone or with a date, you might want to go out and see what the local restaurants are offering. Who knows, maybe you’ll like them even after the snow melts away?
#63 Burn Your Favorite Scented Candle
We can sense winter in many different ways. We can see the snow, and we can feel the cold, but can’t smell the winter. Well, scented candles are here to help us. They are simple to use and easy to enjoy. With so many different smells, you can choose your favorite smelling candle, light it up and enjoy the smell throughout your house.
#64 Host A Football Party
Snow won’t stop the football spirit from disappearing. Invite some of your friends inside that will root for the same or opposite team. Enjoy the games with plenty of food and completely forget the frigid cold weather that looms outside the window.
#65 Attend A Hockey Game
While basketball dominates the courts of summer, hockey comes in hard during the winter season. Ice and cold combined with a bit of action, hockey is the perfect combination of what makes winter one of the best seasons in the year.
#66 Relax At A Spa
A long day of work can only be celebrated by some relaxing time spent with you. A nice visit to the local spa might be just what you need. Just don’t be surprised if the waiting list is long. Others might be taking the available spaces right now!
#67 Visit A Museum In Your Town
One must look at the past to enjoy the present and the upcoming future. Museums are a great gateway to the past that not only show a glimpse of history but also explain it either through vocal or written communication. If you take an educational tour of a museum, maybe you’ll learn what activities people did during the winter season.
#68 Write A Thank You Note To Someone Who Deserves It
Ever wanted to thank someone for helping you or being with you when times hit hard? Why not write a note of thanks to someone who deserves it? A note eliminates the need for any talking and lets only words show your gratitude to the person.
#69 Make Homemade Soup
It’s soup! What winter season can go on without soup? It’s tasty and warm, and it takes not a lot of effort to make. Boil up some chicken stock, throw in some vegetables and peppers, and you will have made some delicious soup to beat the cold winds of the outdoors.
#70 Clean Out & Organize Your Closet
Winter is the season of donating old stuff and creating some room for your new things. If you have the time and patience to do it, why not look inside your closet to see what things have lost their meaning and what things you are still not yet ready to part ways with?
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