Winter Bucket List for Kids: 50 Ideas and How to Actually Use It

By Tuan · Published 23 October 2026

A winter bucket list turns the long, dark months into something kids look forward to. Writing it together is half the fun. The trick is keeping it realistic, so it feels like a list of treats rather than a list of chores you didn't get round to.

Below are 50 ideas in five groups, most of them free or cheap, followed by a simple way to plan how many you'll actually do. (These ideas assume a northern-hemisphere winter, roughly December to February. In Australia, New Zealand or South Africa, the same list works for June to August. Just skip anything that needs snow.)

50 winter bucket list ideas

Outdoors

1. Build a snowman, or a "mud-man" if there's no snow
2. Go for a frosty-morning walk and look for animal tracks
3. Have a snowball fight (soft snow only)
4. Go sledging on a gentle slope with a clear run-out
5. Feed the birds and count how many kinds visit
6. Make ice ornaments by freezing leaves and berries in a tray of water
7. Go stargazing on a clear night: winter nights are long
8. Blow bubbles on a freezing day and see if they freeze
9. Have a winter picnic with flasks of something warm
10. Walk around the neighbourhood to look at lights

Cosy at home

11. Build a blanket fort and read in it
12. Have a pyjama day
13. Make hot chocolate with all the toppings
14. Have a family film night with homemade popcorn
15. Do a jigsaw puzzle together over several days
16. Have a board game tournament with a homemade trophy
17. Read a long book aloud, a chapter a night
18. Have an indoor picnic on the living room floor
19. Camp out in the living room for a night
20. Have a "no screens" evening by candlelight (battery candles for little ones)

Make and create

21. Make paper snowflakes and stick them on the windows
22. Bake and decorate biscuits or cookies
23. Make a bird feeder from a pine cone, seeds and fat
24. Make a winter scrapbook or memory jar
25. Write and illustrate a winter story
26. Make salt-dough decorations
27. Learn to knit, finger-knit or make pompoms
28. Make homemade cards for people you don't see often
29. Build a cardboard sledge, castle or rocket
30. Cook a family dinner where the kids choose the menu

Out and about

31. Visit the library and choose a winter book each
32. Go ice skating
33. Visit a museum on a cold day
34. Go swimming at an indoor pool
35. Find the best hot chocolate in town
36. Visit a farm, garden or park and see how it looks in winter
37. Take a bus or train somewhere you've never been
38. Go to a local winter fair, market or show
39. Go for a walk in the rain with wellies and umbrellas
40. Have breakfast out as a family

Kind and connected

41. Donate toys or clothes you've outgrown
42. Write a thank-you note to someone who helps your family
43. Video-call a relative and read them a story
44. Bake something for a neighbour
45. Make a care package for someone who's having a hard time
46. Help out at home with a "secret helper" job each day for a week
47. Pick up litter on a local walk (with gloves)
48. Ask grandparents what winters were like when they were young
49. Make a "kindness calendar" with one small kind act a day
50. Write a letter to your future self to open next winter

How many should you actually plan?

Fifty ideas is a menu, not a target. From December 1 to the end of February is 90 days, or just under 13 weeks. At two activities a week, that's about 26 over the whole winter. At three a week, about 39. Most families find two a week plenty once school, work and bad weather are taken into account.

A good approach:

1. Each family member picks their top five. Anything picked by more than one person goes straight on the list.
2. Mix the costs. Most ideas above are free or close to it. If a few cost money (ice skating, a museum, a show), decide in advance which ones you'll do, and when.
3. Have bad-weather backups. For every outdoor idea, have an indoor one ready to swap in, so a rainy Saturday isn't a disappointment.
4. Keep it visible. Stick the list on the fridge and let the kids tick things off. Ticking is the reward.

Planning the winter break

School holidays are where a bucket list earns its keep. Holiday dates vary by school and country, so check your own calendar. As an example, a 14-day break from Saturday, December 19, 2026 to Friday, January 1, 2027 covers Christmas Day (a Friday in 2026) and New Year's Day (also a Friday).

Rather than filling all 14 days, try:

• One "big" thing on a few days only. An outing or a special project on 3 or 4 of the 14 days is plenty.
• One small thing on most days. A bird feeder, a jigsaw, a winter walk.
• A few days with nothing planned at all. Kids need lazy days too, and the holidays themselves are busy.
• Leave the days around Christmas light. If you're hosting, my Christmas planning timeline shows where the busy days usually fall.

Make it a memory

At the end of winter, sit down together and look back. Which three things were the best? What would you do again next year? Write it down or draw it, and keep it with the list. Next winter, your family's own favourites become the start of the new list.

If you're also working out jobs for the kids over the holidays, my chore chart by age guide has age-appropriate ideas, and Christmas bingo makes a good cosy-evening activity.

A printable version

My Winter Bucket List Printable has 6 printable pages: 50 winter ideas with tick boxes in five groups (outdoors, cosy at home, make and create, out and about, kind and connected), a "top 5" box, a blank list with 22 lines for your own ideas, a 14-day winter break plan and a winter memories page. It comes as US Letter and A4 PDFs with no dates printed, so it works for any winter. The printed ideas aren't identical to the list above.

Disclosure: the Winter Bucket List Printable is my own product on Payhip, priced at $1. It's also included in my Holiday Season Bundle ($3 for 10 holiday items). Day counts and weekdays above were checked with a short script. Always check outdoor activities against your local weather and safety advice.