44 Activities To Do In Winter
January can be a long cold, dark month. The excitement and celebrations of Christmas are a distant memory. How do you fill the hours of light you have without resorting to a screen of some kids. We all know the novelty of new toys wears off far too quickly. So here’s a list of some fantastic ideas to help.
Let’s Get Started.
Before we start, I just wanted to make you aware I have placed some affiliate links in this post. The products I recommend are ones I believe in whole hearyedly and ones I use regularly. If you purchase anything through these links I may recieve a small commission with no cost to you.
1. Drink Hot Chocolate with mini marshmallows.Yum!
2. Stargaze on a clear night and find a constellation. We checked out this website for lots of wonderful information.
3. Adopt A Tree and care for it throughout the year.
4. Build A Den. Try to build a wig-wam in the woods or throw some covers over the table. Just make a cosy place to snuggle up.
5. Watch A Movie snuggled up together. We love the BFG movie at the moment.
6. Have A Snowball Fight (with cotton balls if you don’t have snow)
7. Read A Novel together. Harry Potter, David Walliams or Roald Dahl books are a good start. Or these books by Anthony Horowitz that my son loves!!
8. Ski, Snowboard or Sledge. This is the one we have for all 3 kids and it’s fantastic and so fast.
9. Plan A Vegetable Garden With Your Kids.
What flowers, fruit or vegetables could you grow?
Buy seeds and make a plan.Read this post to help you get started.
Look out for more growing advice over the coming weeks but to help you get started before the growing season starts in Spring, you might want to read over
Remember to sign up to the Newsletter to make sure you don’t miss anything!
10. Visit A Local Library and while away the hours reading together.
11. Have A Shopping Mall Treasure Hunt. Who can find 3 red bags, 2 blue hats, or a box with a red star etc.
Ready for the next 11 Winter Activities???
12. Visit A Charity shop and have a challenge of who can but the best thing for the least money. You could also see who can donate the most toys.
After Christmas you might need a clear out of unwanted toys.
13. Take A Bus to somewhere new. Find a town with a new park, pond, woods or another attraction to explore.
14. Visit A Pet Store and learn how to look after your favourite animal.
Our pet store sometimes run animal care sessions- where you sit in a group and learn about the animals while you get a chance to pett the animals.
15. Visit A Free Museum. There are lots of different kinds. We love the children’s museum near us. Explore and see what you can find.
You could always set tasks to find something eqyption, with a squeaky wheel or a pink ribbon etc
16. Visit A Toy Shop and see what’s new. If the kids are going to make loads of noise pushing buttons and trying out new toys they’d better do it out of your house?
The next one is my favourite fall back activity for Winter !
17. Bake A Sweet Treat Together. Our next bake will be these amazing looking mincemeat muffins. What could you try?
For something different, have a look at my Courgette Bread Recipe yum.
18. Do Something Nice for a friend or neighbour, run an errand, or make a craft.
19. Watch The Full Moon and make up a story about the man in the moon.
Why not try making a space model from paper mache.
20. Have A Trip Down Memory Lane and look through old photos.
We also try to spend some time re-watching home movies from Christmas’s when the kids were younger.
21. Have A Game Night with snacks.
My kids are just getting to a good age for Monopoly and older games.
There are lots of variations for younger kids.
We love frozen junior monopoly. It’s still almost Monopoly, but its been simplified for younger kids. It’s such a good game but doesn’t take 5 hours to complete.
22. Watch The Sun Rise and listen to the birds sing. We try to do this at least once a year. Just a stunning experience. The kids love to watch the sun go down when we go up North too. The sky looks as though it’s on fire.
We’re half way, have you tried any of these winter activities with your kids yet??
23. Make Homemade Bread And Soup. Try butternut squash and sweet potato or lentil soup. Homemade soup is delicious on a frozen cold January Day.
Pair it with some melted cheese on toast and you have a winning combo to heat you up. Mmm
24. Feed the birds.
Try making a winter buffet tree for the birds. Here’s a post to get you started.
25. Make Salt Dough Ornament. We do this for Christmas each year, but it would be lovely to make a new ornament each year to celebrate the New Year!
26. Make A Snow Globe Together. We loved this Kit. It was so easy to put together.
27. Find Some Animal Tracks.
When its muddy or snowy outside just spend a little time in the woods and you’ll find lots of footprints from deer, seagulls, rabbits, squirrels etc.
You could take things one step further and creat a plaster cast of your footprints.
28. Build A Snowman. Use some pillows if you haven’t got snow, and build a snowman. You could even use marshmallows and cocktail sticks to create some fab snowmen.
29. Make A Stained Glass Window Picture
Use some tissue paper to cover the holes in a snowflake picture.
30. Have A Barbecue and toast marshmallows, heat sausages on a stick, or bake some potatoes.
Last lot coming up!!
31. Try 3 new recipes. Sweet or savoury. Buy some ingredients and see what you can come up with.
32. Go Climb A Tree. Kids love it! Or better yet plant a tree.
Winter is a perfect time to plant most trees but especially fruit trees. Give it a go.
33. Feed The Squirrels. We buy a big bag of monkey nuts (peanuts). They love them! Other wildlife needs your help too over the winter, try leaving out bird seed, nuts and maybe some cat food for any hybernating hedgehogs or squirrwls that wake for a snack.
34. Make A Scrapbook of the year gone by. Take some time and reminisce over all the fun you had in the year past.
35. Go Ten Pin Bowling. Who will win? This is fun for all ages. With ramps and rals now for little ones there’s no excuse to miss out on good family fun.
36. Write And Perform A Puppet Show. Use teddies if you don’t have puppets. Encourage the kids to plan a plot line and decide what props to make. Practise then perform to your siblings, friends or family.
37. Make puppets! There are wonderful kits you can buy or just use for left over felt or material and make your own. This post by Amanda gave us loads of ideas!!
38. Make a paper Mache snowman. The kids love all things papier-mache. Just layer a balloon with up to 6 layers of newspaper and lots of PVA glue.
Once its dry you can pop the balloon inside and paint it. You could also turn it into a pinata!
39. Catch A Snowflake on your tongue.
Just a few more..
40. Play Chase In The Woods, Or Hide and Seek another good one. Just have fun and set boundaries so no one goes too far. Here is another post with more ideas for fun in the woods.
41. Find A Different Park/Woods To Explore. Take a picnic or a flask of soup and see where the day takes you. Maybe take the bikes??
42. Playdoh Snowmen. Make your own playdoh or why not try cloud dough. So easy and you’ll have lovely soft hands.
43. Play Alphabet Eye Spy. A is for apple tree, B is for Blue Bin etc.Take a walk aroubd the town and see if you can get the whole way through the alphabet.
44. Write A Story and read it to someone special.
You could choose characters from other stories or make your own.
Spend an afternoon snuggled up dreaming about all the fun stuff your characters could do.
Remember to check these posts out for more ideas
What do you have planned for the rest of Winter??
I’ll be spending some time planning out our allotment for the start of Spring. A fresh start for me and the kids to
What about you? What do you love to do in January?
Why not download a list of your own so you can try something different?
It’s a great list. I’m not sure about the “Climb a tree.” But I think I’ll try most of them with my kids.
Hi Joscelyn. Thanks for commenting. Im not the best tree climber either but it doeant need to be a big one. Enjoy.
Great ideas! Love the one about going through old Christmas movies- so sweet. And we keep meaning to try cloud dough!
Hi Ruthy. Cloud dough is great fun and not as messy as youd imagine. Leaves your hands smelling lovely too!
We do lots of reading and hot chocolate or baking treats in the wintertime. I like the idea of a play dough snowman because my kids adore snow but we only get enough to make a snowman maybe once a year if we’re lucky.
Thanks Jordan, play dough snow man are so cute. Why not try cloud dough too it looka more like snow and smells devine. X
What a great post! Now that the holidays are over it’s hard to decide what else to do in the actual winter. These are great ideas.
Thanks Echo. Im glad you fknd it useful. Happy New Year!