5 Winter Adventures for Families

Hello, intentional family time. Goodbye, winter blues! Winter can be tough. Especially if your family’s missing the connection and adventures you experience at camp in the summer. So we’re bringing adventure to you! Below we have five winter adventures you can embark on with your family in the cold months. Try these activities on for size and enjoy the memories you make together!

#1 Winter Story Night

Adventure together from the warmth of your living room! If there’s a season to embrace indoor adventures, it’s winter. So, our first adventure suggestion is to have your own winter story night! Gather the family and watch a winter-themed movie (like Frozen or The Chronicles of Narnia) or read a wintery book (like Red Sled). Make your time special with a few simple snacks, cozy lighting, and plenty of comfy blankets. Start with our ideas below or use what you have!

Drinks

White hot chocolate (aka “melted snow”!)
Hot apple cider
Your family’s favorite tea

Snacks

White chocolate covered pretzels or strawberries (bonus points for blue sprinkles!)
Mixed nuts (pretend you’re gathering acorns for the winter!)
Blue Jell-O cubes

Discussion questions

What do you think the story is about?
What can we learn from the story?
Which character reminds you of yourself?

#2 Serve Your Community Together

Finding the time to serve with kids can be overwhelming. Not to mention the energy that goes into deciding which cause to participate in! We get it. That’s why we compiled a list of options that’s really flexible! You can tailor these according to your capacity and your kiddos’ ages. We hope it helps you find a way of serving that works for your family!

Make a cold weather survival pack to share with people experiencing homelessness. Include essentials like packaged food, chapstick, socks, and water. You can donate these packs to a local shelter or keep them in your car to give away. Pro tip: stretch your impact by shopping at discount stores like Dollar Tree. Many have good quality hygiene items and shelf-stable food! Need to scale it down? Encourage your family to donate some of their gently used clothes to a winter drive.

Craft cards for nursing home residents. There’s nothing like a handmade card from a kiddo! You can keep it simple with a greeting for the occasion or spruce it up with an encouraging note or Bible verse. Cards for any occasion can deliver love and encouragement to nursing home residents. Get creative with stickers and construction paper. Many nursing homes will allow you to deliver these cards in person. You could also arrange to drop the cards off at the front desk and allow the staff to deliver them. (Not into cards? Bring single stem flowers to the nursing home instead!)

Donate an afternoon. Call your local food bank or animal shelter to see if they could use young volunteers for an afternoon. This is a low-commitment way to introduce your kids to serving. And if it turns out to be a great fit? Volunteer again!

Meals on Wheels. If your kids are old enough and you have the time in your schedule, consider delivering meals to senior citizens through Meals on Wheels (or a similar organization in your community). This could be a great option for homeschooling families. It’s a higher-commitment form of serving, but it has room to make a big impact!

Ask your church! Your church likely knows exactly who in the community could use a hand! They can connect you with individuals or organizations so your family can make a difference. There are also plenty of ways to serve within the church as well!

No matter the scale of service, there are few better ways to bond with your family than making an impact together!

#3 Get Outside

What’s an adventure without working up a little sweat? Below are winter games for the whole family — no screens necessary!

With Snow:

Snowman Relay. Gather anything and everything you need to clothe a snowman. (Funny hats, marbles for the face, old jackets, etc.) The more items the better! Then split into two or more teams and race to see who can build and decorate their snowman the fastest! Here’s the catch: each player can only complete one step at a time (like placing the hat). Then they have to tag in the next player to complete the next step!

Winter Treasure. Using food coloring and ice trays, make colorful ice. Then hide the frozen treasures around your yard to create a scavenger hunt. (Shake things up by freezing dollar store toys, shells from vacation, painted rocks, etc. Or play in the dark by using small lights instead of ice.)

Without Snow:

Hot Cocoa Relay. Prepare your best warm (not steaming!) mugs of cocoa. Split into at least two teams and relay over obstacles. (Use any obstacles you want! Hula hoop, jump over a bucket, limbo, you name it!) Whoever keeps the most cocoa in their mug wins! Shake things up by adding Red Light, Green Light or freeze tag to the mix!

Penguin Waddle Race. You may already know who the fastest member of your family is. But do you know who the fastest penguin in your family is? Time to put it to the test! Line up, place a balloon or sports ball between your knees, and waddle like a penguin to the finish line! Players older than five start over if the balloon slips, of course. 😉

Frozen Forest Maze. There’s a pot of treasure lost in the frozen forest! Can your team help you find it? There’s just one catch: they must make it through a web of icicles (ahem, blue and white streamers) untouched. Is anybody up for the challenge? This is an adventure that’s easy to customize depending on your kids’ ages! To make it more challenging, add riddles or even let each member of your family create another obstacle.

#4 Dig into the Craft Bin

Time to bust out the craft supplies and … old socks?! That’s right. As our fourth winter adventure, we’re making the one, the only, the nostalgic … sock snowman!

Here’s what you’ll need:

Socks you don’t wear anymore (one sock for each snowman)
Uncooked rice (approximately a cup for each snowman)
Rubber bands (two for each snowman)
Markers (fabric markers are best, but you could make do with permanent!)
Optional: fabric scraps, buttons, sewing kit or hot glue (for parents and older kids!), pipe cleaners, etc. Anything you have in the craft drawer!

Instructions:

Fill a sock with rice. Pour ⅓ of the rice into the bottom of the sock. Tightly wrap a rubber band just above the rice. This creates the bottom part of the snowman. Repeat this step to create the middle and again for the head.
Secure the top of the snowman’s head. You can sew it closed or use hot glue and another rubber band.
Decorate! Give your snowman a face, a distinctive style, a personality!
That’s it! You can make this craft more challenging by creating favorite characters or awarding the snowmen. (Award based on most creative, most lifelike, scariest, etc.)

#5 Ski & Serve

Finally, for the ultimate winter adventure, join Glorieta Family Camp this March at Ski & Serve! Ski & Serve blends intentional family time, service, and outdoor adventure (skiing!). If you’re looking for a spring break that brings the family closer, this is it! Learn more about Ski & Serve 2025. Registration closes two weeks before each session.

And if you can’t join us this March, we hope you still have a BLAST with these winter adventures. Get creative, make them your own, and enjoy creating unique memories with your family! We pray these adventures draw you closer to God and each other.

Finally, share your adventures with us! No matter what your family is up to this winter, bring us along for the journey. You can do that by tagging us on social media when you share your winter fun or by commenting below and telling us which winter adventure you’re trying first!