Winter activities for adults: a winter bucket list for the cold months

Winter activities for adults are the things you can only do in the cold months, like lying in fresh snow or walking down a street that has gone quiet under a snowfall. A winter bucket list makes sure you actually do them, because a season of gray weekends goes by fast. Some people want the hill the moment the snow comes. Others want a blanket, a book and one good friend, and there is room here for both.

An example: Bea's back door opens onto a field with a few birch trees at its far edge. On the first big snow of the winter she goes in to make cocoa, and when she comes back out with a mug in each hand, her friend Maya is flat on her back in the snow, sweeping her arms and legs out and in. Maya hasn't made a snow angel since she was nine. She's laughing so hard her eyes are shut. Bea stands over her in her navy knitted hat and waits for the angel to be done, and by then the cocoa has gone lukewarm. They drink it anyway.

A winter bucket list to finish before the thaw

Put a few things on the list that need snow and a few that never leave the house, then pick the ones that make you grin.

• Make a snow angel and get up without stepping in it.
• Write down the day of the first snow and the day of the last.
• Try one winter sport you have never done before.
• Spend the longest night of the year by candlelight only.
• Grow a little tree from an avocado pit on the windowsill.
• Ask the oldest person you know about the snowiest winter they remember.
• Shovel a neighbor's path before they wake up, and don't tell them it was you.
• Stay out in the snow until your cheeks sting, then come in to something hot.

For a list that runs longer than one season, bucket list ideas covers the rest of your life. If the snow hasn't reached you yet, fall activities for adults has plenty for the weeks before it.

Things to do in the snow

When it snows, go out in the first hour, while the snow is soft and nobody has plowed it yet.

• Read the tracks. The morning after a night snow, a field shows who crossed it in the dark. Rabbits leave two long prints and two small ones, foxes often walk in one neat line and birds leave little forks.
• Look at a snowflake up close. Leave a dark wool glove outside to get cold, then let a few flakes land on it. Up close you can see the six arms, and each flake is a little different.
• Build a snow chair. Pile the snow knee high, pack it hard and shape a seat and a back with your hands. Sit in it with a hot drink until your feet tell you to go in.
• Make an ice lantern. On a night well below freezing, leave a bucket of water outside. By morning the sides have frozen and the middle hasn't. Turn it out, pour away the water and put a candle inside the hollow block.
• Walk while it's still falling. Fresh snow soaks up sound, so a street you know goes quieter than it ever is in summer. Go out after dark and watch the flakes come down under a streetlight.

Indoor winter activities for long evenings

By five o'clock it's dark, and the evening ahead is long. The best indoor winter activities fill it slowly.

• Learn to waltz in the kitchen. Push the table to the wall, put on a slow song and learn the box step: forward, side, together, back, side, together. Ten minutes a night, and by February you can waltz anywhere.
• Make croissants. They take a whole day of folding cold butter into dough, and a cold kitchen helps.
• Make cocoa properly. Melt a few squares of dark chocolate into hot milk, whisk until it foams and add a pinch of salt.
• Hold a reading night for two. Invite one friend, bring two books and two blankets, make a pot of tea and agree that nobody talks for the first hour.

When winter brings sleet and gray rain instead of snow, things to do on a rainy day has more for a day indoors.

Winter hobbies to learn before spring

Winter has so many evenings to practice in that it's a good season to learn a skill.

• Cross-country skiing. It's a long walk that glides: push off with one leg, slide on the other and swing the opposite arm.
• Snowshoeing. The skill is in the hills. Kick your toes in going up, and keep your knees soft and your weight back going down.
• Crochet. One hook, some yarn and one stitch, the chain, are enough to start a plain hat.
• Photographing snow. Cameras and phones darken a bright white field to gray. Learn to brighten the shot a little before you take it, and your snow will look like snow.
• Drawing with charcoal. Bare winter trees make the best first subject, with dark lines and nothing to color in.

If none of these sounds like you, how to find a hobby starts from what you already enjoy.

Once the snow is gone, spring activities for adults has plans for the thaw and the first warm weekends.

Fun winter activities with friends

In winter it's easy to stop seeing friends until spring. These give everyone a reason to get out of the house.

• A real snowball fight. Two teams, a low wall of snow for each side and one rule: nobody aims at faces.
• A winter picnic. Wrap a pot of something hot in towels, lay a tarp on the snow with blankets on top and eat lunch outside in your coats.
• A night walk with headlamps. On a clear night after a snowfall, walk a trail you all know. At the top, switch the lamps off for a minute and see how bright the snow is under the open sky.
• A curling night. Some curling clubs run evenings for beginners. Within an hour the whole group is sliding stones down the ice and shouting at each other to sweep.

If the group wants a proper party, party themes for adults has a set of winter themes. And if one friend always wants the hill while another wants the couch, the friendship test shows how your two types tend to get along, so the plan can suit you both.

For the walk home afterward, winter jokes has jokes about the snow and the cold to pass around.

When it's just the two of you

Couples can take almost anything on this page and make it theirs. Build the snow chair wide enough for two, learn the waltz together or take turns choosing the slow evening. For Christmas plans and a long list of cold weather dates, see winter date ideas.

Things to do in January, and a January bucket list

January is the long middle of winter. The holidays are over, the calendar is empty and many people stay in until spring, which makes it a good month to say yes to things. Just before it comes New Year's Eve, and New Year's Eve ideas has plans for every kind of crowd.

A short January bucket list:

• Host a dinner in the second week, when nobody else has plans.
• Write down the sunset time on the 1st and again on the 31st, and see how much light you've gained.
• Text a friend you haven't seen since summer and pick a date.
• Walk outside at noon on the coldest day of the month.

January is also a good time to plan the warm months ahead, and summer activities for adults has a summer bucket list to start from.

Which types head for the hill, and which stay in with a book

Every group has one person who reads the snow forecast with joy and one who reads it with dread. Typeza sees personality type as part of that. Eight of the 16 types:

• Ideator wants the hill and a new way down it every time, then one evening inside with an odd idea to argue about.
• Mentor wants the snow day with people they care about, and the best part is the long talk over cocoa afterward.
• Strategist picks the blanket, a long book and a friend who doesn't need to talk, with one long walk after a big snowfall when nobody else is out.
• Entrepreneur is on skis by eight and has cleared two paths by ten.
• Guardian asks who's going before saying yes to the hill, and turns up to help shovel when they said they would.
• Organizer builds the snow chair properly and has the snowball teams sorted before anyone has found their gloves.
• Counselor wants a quiet afternoon with one close friend, a book each and no plans.
• Encourager says yes to a new winter sport on the spot, then needs a warm sofa and soup afterward.

People on the blanket side are often homebodies, and winter is the season that suits them best. Type only describes what people often enjoy, and many of us want the hill one weekend and the book the next. Read this for fun and never as advice about someone you know.

Find out which side of winter you're on

Type is often part of why a snowy Saturday pulls you outdoors or keeps you on the couch. Take the free friendship compatibility test and see your type, with what it enjoys and where it struggles. Then compare with the friend who always wants the other kind.

Questions people ask

What are good winter activities for adults?

Make a snow angel, follow animal tracks after a night snow, build a snow chair or have a snowball fight with friends. Indoors, try croissants or a waltz in the kitchen.

Sources

• Wikipedia, "Snowflake". Snowflakes grow six arms from a hexagon, and it is unlikely any two are alike.
• National Snow and Ice Data Center, "Science of snow". Fresh, fluffy snow absorbs sound.

Written by Virko Kask, founder of Typeza
Written with the help of AI tools.