Winter-Time Activities

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Brrrrr it’s cold out there! As the temperature drops and the holiday season approaches, check out a few low-cost or free fun indoor and outdoor activities you can try with your family!

Indoor

• Have an indoor beach day! It might be too cold to do any sunbathing, but you can make-believe you’re on a fabulous tropical vacation by having a beach-themed indoor picnic. Spread out some beach blankets, wear your swimming outfits or shorts, put on some sunglasses and pack a picnic you can eat in the living room. You can even try to make some kinetic sand for sand castles if you don’t mind the mess. This is a great sensory activity for little ones. Little bins for little hands as a great kinetic sand recipe.
• Go through family pictures and reminisce with stories. It can be really interesting for children to see pictures of dad as a teenager, or grandma as a young girl. If you don’t have pictures of other family members, it can be great to look through more recent pictures together and talk about what you remember.
• Draw some family portraits. Have your child draw a picture of you, and you can draw one of them! Or, if you have magazines lying around, you can all cut out pictures or words that represent your family and your family values.
• Art scavenger hunt. This can be fun to do in-person, or even at a Zoom family gathering. Give everyone 1–2 minutes to find household items to make something: a snowman, a Christmas tree, or a snowball! To make it even simpler, give everyone 30 seconds to find: something red, something sparkly, something soft. Once the time is up, everyone can present their creations or what they found with the group.

Outdoor

• Explore the different Christmas light displays around the city. There are a lot of free attractions, although some of them have an entrance fee. Inside Vancouver has a list of 20 places where you can view Christmas lights around Vancouver. Here’s a recent list of some amazing local homes that really went all out this year on their holiday decorations
• Hot chocolate walk: Sweeten up your walk with a nice hot drink to keep everyone cozy as you go for a nature walk, or a walk around the neighbourhood. Although there isn’t going to be as much greenery around, you can spot all the squirrels gathering nuts, or find your favourite leaves that have dropped on the ground. If you go for a walk in your neighbourhood, you and your little one can visit all your favourite places. Maybe it’s the local library where you take them for storytime, or the community centre where they have their swimming lessons. You can reflect on what you love about your local neighbourhood.
• Bingo scavenger hunt: Draw a bingo card, (5x5 grid of squares). With your child, brainstorm different things that you might see on your walk outside. You can write or they can draw each item into each square. (A bird, a pinecone, Christmas lights, a squirrel, someone who looks like Santa). Then on your walk, see if you can find enough on your list to get BINGO! Depending on your child’s age, you can make it easy or more challenging based on the items you choose.

The holiday season can be challenging, especially in the last few years. Wishing you all a safe and warm winter!