Winter Bucket List Magic

Winter is America’s trickiest season. An overwhelming majority of Americans consider winter their least favorite season, but almost the same percentage consider Thanksgiving and Christmas to be their favorite holidays. We all love the celebrations and camaraderie of the season but not the weather! That makes sense. It’s cold, it stays dark longer, and dealing with ice and snow is frustrating.

That’s also why many choose warm destination vacations during this time of year. They seek out the tropics, or another hemisphere, to escape the cold. But, for a lot of us, planning a big trip during one of the most expensive times of year to travel just isn’t doable. We’re already using the last of our paid time off and vacation funds to visit with family over the holidays. That’s non-negotiable. There’s no time off or money left for anything else, so we spend most of January regretting eating that third piece of pie at Thanksgiving and dreading the arrival of the credit card statement. It’s like a month-long holiday hangover. No wonder January gets a bad rap as the most depressing month. We’re not doing anything to make it fun. We’re just wallowing.

That’s where a winter bucket list comes in. We need to find ways to make all of winter more enjoyable. The holidays and their delicious foods, colorful decorations, and twinkling lights have fun built right in to their very being. It’s the wonder and allure of travel without having to go anywhere. Your house gets dressed up and feels like a new space. You indulge in foods that you don’t have in other seasons. You take part in activities that only happen once a year. Just like when you go on vacation.

But what do you do after the holidays? Take down the decorations and return to your normal, everyday home and schedule, just like coming back from a vacation. A post-vacation depression is a real phenomenon, and the same concept applies to post-holidays. January can feel like quite the let down after all the excitement of the previous two months, but in reality, that’s just because we haven’t planned anything fun to do to keep the dopamine flowing. We need a distraction, and a winter bucket list can be just the thing to do it.

A winter bucket list is full of fun mini-adventures you can only do during this special time of year, or maybe you just have more time to do them while you’re inside avoiding the cold.

Make a game out of it!

See how many activities you can cross off your list in three months, or pace yourself and choose one per week.

Create your own list!

Customize it to be all outdoors, all indoors, or all related to a certain theme. Whatever gets you excited, or at least willing, to experience winter in a positive way. Learning to make the best of even our least favorite season is a life skill we all need at one point or another. Having a bucket list to experience the fun of travel without leaving home can be a gamechanger for your mental health while you’re building back up your vacation fund or PTO. No matter what season of life you’re in this year, I hope you can bring yourself some travel-like joy with a fun winter bucket list. Happy holidays!

Create your list!

Here are some ideas to get you started:

• Drink hot chocolate, tea, or apple cider while you sit outside for a few minutes, soaking up the winter sunshine.

• Take your Southern-raised children up north to experience real snow for the first time, but just for the weekend so you don’t have to buy a whole new wardrobe for them to survive.

• Make a seasonal decoration to brighten up your living space. One you can use in January, too, not just for the holidays!

• Hike, snowshoe, or cross-country ski through a snow-covered forest.

• Find the winter-blooming flowers where you live, or grow your own inside.

• Learn how to crack an egg with one hand, or another random but-useful skill you’ve been meaning to learn.

• Visit your favorite park and experience it in a different season. Even bare trees in sunshine can be beautiful.

• Try ice skating, ice fishing, or ice climbing. Take advantage of the cold weather!

• Attend a community winter event, like a handmade market or Christmas village. Small businesses appreciate the support way more than the big box stores.

• Choose one goal for 2025, plan out 10 actions you can take to achieve it, and do the first task now. Yes, even if it’s before the 1st!

• Learn a new hobby, like crocheting or woodworking, with all your new-found indoor free time.

• Go stroll the beach on a sunny day, but don’t forget your windbreaker!

• Complete a home project like rehanging doors or adding shelves.

• Read a book set in a different country or your favorite vacation destination, like a New England beach town or the French Riviera.

• Watch a seasonal movie marathon: Hallmark Channel movies, kids’ animated movies, or all the Die Hard movies.

• Explore the desert without getting heat stroke. Spoilers: it’ll still be cold in the shade and at night.

• Get a paint by number kit of a beautiful destination, and enjoy an hour or two of painting each day with guaranteed gorgeous results!

• Bake (or buy) new-to-you goodies from around the world, and sample them all.

• Explore a local museum, art gallery, historic site, or aquarium.

• Create a scrapbook, physical or digital. It could be a memory book, a baby book, or a travel adventures book. Whatever you want to remember from this past year!