With winter officially starting in the Northern Hemisphere, many families are looking for fun indoor activities to get them through the next few months. Between the cold weather, short days, and a pandemic that’s closed down most forms of entertainment, fun ideas are more than welcome. So, if you’re looking for fun activities to do inside with your family during the winter months, here are some of our favourite ideas.
Board Games
A Netflix or Disney+ subscription can be a lifesaver during the cold winter months. But, let’s face it, none of us should probably be spending as much time in front of a screen as we already are.
One fun activity that could replace your household’s Sunday afternoon movie marathon could be a family game night. There’s a wide variety of classic and new board games out there, including a few good ones for preschoolers. Of course, if you’re the type of folks who are too competitive for Monopoly, you could also give puzzles or chess a try.
However, if your family wants something that can help improve your intellectual abilities, then playing scrabble can be an excellent option for board games. Aside from killing boredom during the winter season and building healthy relationships, scrabble can help you expand your vocabularies. As such, your family will have fun while having an opportunity to showcase each one’s vocabulary skills.
Food Prep
What about combining something that’s both fun and useful? Cooking can be an excellent way for families to spend time together.
Not only is preparing meals an educational activity for children of all ages, but it’s also a project you can thoroughly enjoy once it’s finished. Prepare family staples or choose from one of the many recipes available in our food section, and you won’t be sorry.
Gardening
Want to take things up a notch? Why not get everyone together to start a windowsill garden? Choose a sunny spot to plant some herbs or grow vegetables that you’ll be able to enjoy in a few months or so. You can even grow herbs or vegetables in your kitchen using mason jars!
Of course, if you haven’t exactly got a green thumb, maybe you can start with a few succulents or a couple of low-maintenance air-purifying plants for your living space.
Get Moving
With the Covid-19 pandemic, most of our workouts have either gone on break or have moved to small home-based exercise spaces. But considering the cold weather and long winter waiting for us, this could be a good thing.
Why not come up with exercise challenges for the entire household? Anything from a basic 10-minute strength workout, to a streamed fitness class, or even a game of indoor golf can be an excellent way for your family to have fun and improve your physical health. Plus, you’ll all be “beach ready” by the time April comes around.
Start a Band
Ok, so you may not be the most musical family on the block. But that doesn’t mean you don’t enjoy a good tune.
Getting together with your kids to learn and play an instrument isn’t just a good way to bond. It’s also an activity that has numerous proven benefits. According to Harvard Health, music can boost memory and mood. Plus, it can help your teen with their math homework, which is always an added bonus.
Get Crafty
While DIY projects aren’t the most creative suggestion for indoor family activities, they’re common for a reason: They’re fun and they work.
Make your own playdough. Craft your favourite Star Wars characters to keep you company for the next episode of The Mandalorian. Build your entire neighbourhood out of Legos.
But if your family loves working around with art, then embroidery can be a perfect option. It refers to a craft that uses needles to decorate fabric and other materials with yarn or thread. It also includes adding some decorative items like beads, pearls, and even sequins. Nowadays, embroidery can be used in clothing, caps, coats, and hats.
That being said, embroidery can be indeed an excellent way of spending time with your family during the winter season. Unlike other fun family activities, decorating fabrics and other materials with thread and ornaments doesn’t require you to go outside and expose yourself to the cold temperature.
But aside from that, there are also other essential reasons for getting drafty with embroidery during the colder months. One of them is that it can be custom-made. Whether it’s a design pattern or letters, you can have it added to a fabric or other similar material with the use of embroidery.
For example, if you want to embroider your name’s initials on your handkerchief or hat, you can certainly do so. It can be a rewarding and satisfying experience for you and your family. But if the family is doing embroidery for the first time, you can check out some resource websites to learn how to embroider letters and other patterns.
So, if you’re looking for many ways to get crafty, there are indeed many choices to look into, as mentioned above. Nevertheless, whichever of these crafts you choose, you’re sure to find that doing something creative makes the time go by faster.
Socially Distanced Cultural Events
Last but not least, if you’re staying home this winter season, you can make the most of the extra free time and do some things you may not have the opportunity to do otherwise. For example, many cultural institutions will be streaming live music or recorded events, all for free. Or, you can keep an eye out on YouTube and find streams from theatre companies from all over the world, including Broadway smash hits.
Whether you’re looking for good ways to relax as a family or want to inject a bit of excitement into your home, these fun activities to do inside during the winter are all great options. They’re not only entertaining, but also easily adaptable, and they’re good for all age groups. So don’t hesitate to give them a go this season. And let us know which ones you enjoyed the most!
Great actives, we’re just about to start growing some veggies in doors, will start with kale and lettuce and go from there.
That will be so much fun!
Great ideas. May I also suggest taking an online class together as a family; whether its a dance class, yoga class, or an educational class of some sort… My 17 year old and I took an online history course through Harvard (for free) back in April, my 20 year old and I took an AI Programming class in October (through UCLA for free online) and my nephew (who is 5) took an engineering class designing paper airplanes. It has been really fascinating and interesting.
Great ideas! So many free online classes now, especially because of COVID!
To be better at food prep and planning will be my goal for this upcoming year.
There is so much that can be done as a family, the first thing is to put the cell phones and electronics away
So true!
I love the suggested family activities. All of them are easy in incorporate in our daily lives and makes things just a bit more fun and memorable!
Awesome list of family indoor activities. Thanks for sharing!