Winter Activity Ideas

Hello, Winter! Love it or loathe it, winter is inevitable. For those of us in a cold climate, it’s three months on paper, and more like six months in reality. Perhaps not all snow and cold, but months where the garden is dormant or slow growing.

Take advantage of what each season has to offer.  The obvious assets winter offers are snow and ice.  Get out and enjoy!

Another aspect for winter is the urge to hibernate and make time for quieter indoor endeavors that we often don’t have time for during the rest of the year.

When the hubbub of the holiday season slows down, consider this list of possible winter activities to keep you motivated.

Outdoor Ideas

If you can tolerate the cold (or learn to love it), now is the time to go skating, tobogganing, skiing, snowboarding, snowshoeing, walking, and hiking. Unless temperatures are dangerously cold, it’s a favorite time of year for long walks.

Photography

Have you ever looked through all the photography settings on your mobile phone? Most have settings for winter light, items in motion, and video recording.

Or, perhaps you have another camera you have never really mastered. It’s time to learn what it can do and choose a winter photography project to get started.  Winter offers unique beauty and creative opportunities unlike any other time of year.

• Make time-lapse movies| Ideas include recording snow falling, storms, melts, shoveling a deep snow, or creating snow creatures.
• Make family videos| Record a day in the life of your family, start vlogging (either for private or public viewing). Even just one day can become a family keepsake.
• Make ice fog| Have you ever seen those videos of people tossing containers of boiling water into the freezing winter air? That’s ice fog. Cool to do, makes a neat video.
• Feed the birds| Set up a winter-feeding station with suet, seed, and running water. Photograph or video the feathered visitors.

Get Crafty

• Winter Garden Art| Dress up your snowy garden.
• String Light Art| Bust out the string lights and get creative.

Indoor Ideas

Handwork

Have you ever wanted to learn one of these? Or maybe you did them long ago and want to pick them up again?

Arts & Crafts

This category is infinite. Use these lists to recall the things stuff you love to do (or have always wanted to try) and never made time for. Do those things!  If you are not sure how to do it, consult the internet.

• Make candles| I like hand-dipped beeswax candles but melt and pour is an option too.
• Make your own beauty products| Soaps, lotions, scrubs
• Hand-dye fabric| Cotton fabric and clothing is easy to dye in an array of colors and textures
• Hand-paint shoes| Turn plain canvas shoes into walking works of art
• Kids crafts| Cocoa kit in snowman jar, Paper snowflakes, paper mâché, macramé.
• Paint & draw| Make art with oil paints, acrylics, watercolors, pen and ink, pencil, pencil crayons, crayons, charcoal, and more, or any combination.
• Scrapbooking| On paper or the digitally on the computer, if you treasure family records, assemble those memories while you can.
• Woodworking, Building, Carving| If you have the space and tools, this one has endless possibilities. Is there anything you need for your home? Gifts to make?
• Wood burning| Create coasters, art, plant markers: any clean wood will do.

Baking & Cooking

Want to make more meals at home or learn new recipes?

• Soup & stews| Now is the time for savory comfort foods.
• Baking| Learn bread baking. Dig out those recipes you have never tried.

Indoor Gardening

• Houseplants| Ready to get started? Or, do your indoor plants need maintenance including repotting or washing?
• Grow salads indoors| Yes, you can grow fresh greens under simple fluorescent lights all year-round.
• Start seeds| Timing matters for seeds intended for planting outdoors. But you can start seeds for indoor plants any time.
• Force bulbs| Pre-chilled bulbs give you blooms right when you want them.

Garden Planning

• Seed catalogues | Browse online or order copies and see what’s possible in your growing zone.
• Garden review & plan |Look over any notes and photographs from the previous growing season and map out your plans (and wish list) for the seasons ahead.

Exercise

We need our health to do all the other stuff.

• Got equipment at home you never use?Time to dust it off and give it a whirl.
• No equipment?| try yoga, aerobics, dance, weight training (using food cans), and so on.

Read & Explore

Winter is reading catch-up time!

• Readfor the love of it | Life is too short to put this off!
• Research| Is there a topic you have always been intrigued with and never made time to explore it?
• Genealogy| Research your family tree.
• Locate old friends| Become a Facebook super sleuth and find your friends you’ve lost touch with.

Home Improvements

This may not seem like a creative topic to some, but it could be….

• Declutter| After years of feeling burdened by clutter, there were two things that really helped.
• Paint| Time to repaint? Or freshen things up? I’ve been repainting ceilings and wow, what a difference it makes.
• Clean| Do your spring-cleaning in winter and avoid the rush!