Baby, It's Cold Outside: 15 Fun Winter Activities To Try This Year

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Baby, It’s Cold Outside: 15 Fun Winter Activities To Try This Year
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Whether or not a winter holiday is on the cards for you this year, there’s never been a better time to get out and enjoy the crisp, clear, fresh air of the season. We’ve already told you how to keep living al fresco in the cooler months, now we’ll inspire you to get active, no matter where you are.

By Fiona Brutscher

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Baby, It’s Cold Outside: 15 Fun Winter Activities To Try This Year .
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Ice skating is a relatively weather-independent winter activity, even in warmer climates. For many people, it’s a seasonal, maybe even a family tradition. If your local outdoor rink is open, or if you’re lucky enough to have access to a frozen pond, river, canal or lake, an al fresco skate is the perfect socially distanced cold-weather activity. If ice skating is not possible this year, why not recreate the experience without the ice? All you need is a large, open area with a level surface (think an empty car park) and a pair of rollerblades or roller skates. If you’re feeling particularly extra, dress up in your best figure skating outfit (glitter and nude illusion elements NOT optional) and rope in some friends to play judges and flash score cards as you set the “rink” on fire.

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Baby, It’s Cold Outside: 15 Fun Winter Activities To Try This Year .
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Picnics may be firmly associated with summer for most people, but that was before indoor dining became such a potentially risky affair (and even, in some places, an impossibility). Suddenly, outdoor picnics have become the safest way to socialise in style, no matter the season. Depending on weather and temperatures, you may need to provide some form of shelter above, a waterproof tarp and warm rugs below, plus anything you can think of that will keep your guests warm. Heated cushions or hot water bottles, hand warmers and heated insoles provide heat from the outside in, while hot and spicy food and drinks will warm you up from the inside.

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Baby, It’s Cold Outside: 15 Fun Winter Activities To Try This Year .
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Now, tea, hot toddies and mulled wine are all very well and good, but if you’re going to be outdoors more than usual, you’d better up your hot beverage game. Think fancy home-made hot chocolate, spiced hot kombucha or winter cocktails. Include immune-boosting ingredients like citrus fruits and berries, ginger and turmeric, or cinnamon and elderflower.

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Baby, It’s Cold Outside: 15 Fun Winter Activities To Try This Year .
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Snowball fights, building a snowman or making an igloo are all great winter activities – if you get snow. If not, you can have a foam ball fight, make a scarecrow or build an outdoor blanket fort instead. The latter can be a full-day activity, beginning with a walk in the woods to collect twigs and branches, then building a stable structure, draping it with blankets and waterproof traps, before finally “furnishing” it to your heart’s content. If your fort is structurally sound, you could even have an outdoor sleepover.

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Baby, It’s Cold Outside: 15 Fun Winter Activities To Try This Year .
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Speaking of snow: If your annual winter escape has been cancelled, but you simply can’t imagine going a full year without dashing through the white powder, you could scratch that itch by making your own snow. There are lots of different recipes out there, usually involving baking soda, cornstarch and conditioner or shaving cream. They all have one thing in common: they’re pretty messy, so grab your ingredients, bundle up and create your own winter wonderland outside.

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Baby, It’s Cold Outside: 15 Fun Winter Activities To Try This Year .
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Love Frozen? Then make like Elsa and turn water into magical ice! You may not be able to shoot ice out of your fingertips like the princess, but with some assistance, you can very much control the element as soon as temperatures drop below zero. Making an ice sculpture can be as simple as pouring water into a mould and leaving it outside overnight, but you can also create more complex structures by freezing brick shapes and combining them, or you can let mother nature run wild by setting up a drip-freeze contraption that lets warm water slowly drop from an insulated container and create organic shapes once it hits the icy air.

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Baby, It’s Cold Outside: 15 Fun Winter Activities To Try This Year .
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Winter science experiments are a great way to keep budding STEM researchers entertained – and sometimes they can even teach adults a thing or two. Create a snow volcano or gorgeous crystals with simple chemistry ingredients, learn more about the physics of heat and cold, or find out about nature by observing how flora and fauna get through winter.

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Baby, It’s Cold Outside: 15 Fun Winter Activities To Try This Year .
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Bird watching, for example, can provide hours of entertainment on cold winter days – with the occasional teachable moment as a bonus. Lure them to your balcony or garden by making a bird feeder or even building a birdhouse. Feeder DIYs range from extremely simple upcycling projects for the whole family, to elaborate woodworking or even LEGO constructions. When you’re done, you can get to observing, documenting and learning more about the behaviour of your feathered friends.

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Baby, It’s Cold Outside: 15 Fun Winter Activities To Try This Year .
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Normally, we’re encouraged to stay away from yellow snow, but we’re throwing caution to the wind and embracing all the fun coloured snow and ice can offer. All you need is food dye and snow or water. The rest is up to your imagination (or your Google and Pinterest research skills). For kids, simply running around and squirting a rainbow of colours on freshly fallen snow can be as much fun as painting with ice or an egg hunt (with coloured-ice-filled balloons). Adults are more likely to appreciate the visuals. If you’re expecting an enduring cold spell, you could experiment with illuminated ice bricks – they will really light up dark winter nights and add a dash of colour to any outdoor entertainment you might be planning.

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Baby, It’s Cold Outside: 15 Fun Winter Activities To Try This Year .
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Thanksgiving is mainly known as an American and Canadian celebration, but cultures all over the world have traditions that involve giving thanks for a good harvest at this time of the year. Even if you don’t usually celebrate, there’s a good chance you’ll already be aware of or able to find information on local harvest festival customs. They usually involve some form of decoration made from autumnal victuals, so get out there, collect nuts, berries, sheafs of corn and bunches of wheat. Throw in some chestnuts and golden leaves for a cosy seasonal look.

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Baby, It’s Cold Outside: 15 Fun Winter Activities To Try This Year .
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Okay, hear us out: winter swimming! Not necessarily the so-called “Polar Bear” variety, where you take the plunge in freezing-cold water (although there’s a lot to be said for the immune- and circulation-boosting advantages of that, too). You can also find a natural hot spring or a heated outdoor pool for an invigorating spot of exercise under winter skies.

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Baby, It’s Cold Outside: 15 Fun Winter Activities To Try This Year .
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We are more likely to spend summer nights admiring the night sky, but there are several advantages to stargazing in winter. Cold nights tend to be clearer and nightfall is early enough for the whole family to join in before bedtime, so download a sky viewing app and explore the universe together.

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Baby, It’s Cold Outside: 15 Fun Winter Activities To Try This Year .
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Fighting ice with fire is the intuitive strategy – and one we can only recommend. Whether you build a giant bonfire in a field, huddle around a fire pit in your own garden or host a winter barbecue, there are few things as satisfying as an open fire on a blistering cold day. Maybe it’s in the collective memory of our cavepeople DNA, but we look forward to lighting that flame as soon as temperatures drop!

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Baby, It’s Cold Outside: 15 Fun Winter Activities To Try This Year

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