While the days of outdoor picnics and warm walks by the water may be over for the season, that doesn’t mean you have to stop having fun. The winter months open the door to a wide variety of winter-themed activities to do with family and friends. Brightwater Senior Living has compiled a list of a few of these activities to give you some ideas about how to spend the winter days.

Make Hot Cocoa Jars

Hot cocoa jars are fun to make, great to give as wintertime gifts, and are a perfect treat to keep around the house for cold nights or snowy mornings. Simply take some mason jars and fill them with layered ingredients for hot chocolate: cocoa powder, powdered milk, sugar, salt, and marshmallows. You can experiment with ingredient combinations, but here is a good recipe to start off. Just add hot water whenever you need a sweet treat.

Make DIY Snow Globes

Another fun multipurpose crafting activity is making your own snow globes. In fact, if you have leftover empty hot cocoa jars, they’ll make perfect snow globes. You’ll also need distilled water, glycerin, and some glitter. For a more personal touch, this guide includes instructions on how to mount a photo inside.

Host Card or Board Game Nights

While outdoor activities might be off the table for a few months, rainy day staples like card and board games continue to be fun in winter. If you live in a senior living community, they may hold game nights, but you can also extend invitations to family and friends of all ages to join in the fun. There’s nothing like an endless game of Monopoly to bring people together and bring out the laughter.

Bake Cookies

You don’t have to wait for the holidays to bake and decorate classic winter sugar cookies. Baking a simple recipe can be a great bonding experience for you and your children or grandchildren, as well as friends or neighbors. This recipe is a great starting point, but pre-packaged sugar cookie mixes will work too. After all, the real fun comes with decorating them!

We hope these suggestions were able to give you some good pointers for fun ways to spend your winter. For more senior activity ideas, check out the Brightwater blog.