Winter is one of those things where some people love it, and some people dislike it. But, you should know that just because your yard might be filled with that powdery white stuff, there are still a lot of fun things you can do in your backyard! Here are a few ideas for you to take a look at once winter comes – and it’s just around the corner, so you better start soon!
Building A Snowman
I think everyone, at least once in their life has built a snowman. It’s fun, it passes the time and it’s a great activity to spend with your kids, if you have them. But, if you want to make this activity even more fun, why not consider holding a Snowman Building Contest. Everyone and anyone can get involved – even the kids. Just get everyone to build a snowman however they want and with whatever items they want, as long as it’s mainly built from snow, and compete to see who has the best one. The winner can get something cool like a gift basket for wintertime (hot chocolate, marshmallows, cookies, etc.) or maybe a gift card to a spa. Whatever the prize is, everyone is sure to have a lot of fun with this!
Winter Campfire
If your city allows it, you can actually build a campfire in your backyard using a fire pit. If you don’t have a fire pit it’s really quite easy to make one. The first real step is to clean out a majority of the snow for the fire pit. Then, you can start to build the fire pit using your own materials or you can purchase a kit that has everything for you. In fact, if you want, you could even get started with your fire pit now so it’s ready before the snow comes. Just remember to keep the fire pit away from your landscaping – even in cold weather, accidents with fire can happen!
Playing Snow Soccer
It doesn’t have to be warm out to play a friendly game of snow soccer. Plan out a course using your landscape design to kick the ball around and make sure you use two marks for the goal line. You could even make a goal line between two landscaping trees or shrubs to make it a little more interesting. Be sure to use a really bright colored ball too so that you don’t lose it in all that snow.
Set Up A Scavenger Hunt
This is a great activity to do with your kids and you don’t need to spend a lot of time setting it up! Create a clue checklist with a bunch of blues for your kids to follow and include an activity in that clue – something they have to do in order to find the next clue; jump 3 steps to your right, walk 2 steps forward, etc. You can also set up extra clues in your yard using landscape design in trees, bushes, flowering pots and more.
String Up Lights
Not only is this pleasing to the eye, but it can also be something you can do with your kids. Stringing up lights is fun and it allows your kids to design and place the lights wherever and however they want. You can use colored rainbow lights or white lights or you can use different shapes depending on the look that you want.
Identify Animal Tracks
Unless you are some super tracker, you might have a better and easier time finding animal tracks in the snow than if it was not snowy. This is another cool activity to either do on your own or with your kids. You can make a whole activity out of it, from taking pictures of the tracks, to cataloging them to even looking on the Internet or in a local bird and wildlife book to find out which track is from which animal. Make sure you let your kids look around the landscaping design for little critter feet like squirrels and voles! You can even go on a nature walk to find more prints such as foxes, deer and moose.
