My Favorite Winter Activities

Welcome back to Diary of a Small-Town Girl! We’re fully into February now, and that means that winter is almost halfway over! Well, if you live in Minnesota like I do, maybe we’re more like a quarter of the way through. But just because it’s cold doesn’t mean that you can’t have fun. My friends and I (both at college and at home) have found plenty of ways to stay active and to explore during the winter months. So, here’s My Favorite Winter Activities!

My Favorite Winter Activities

Ice Skating

Ice skating is probably my absolute favorite winter activity. In high school, we went to open skate at our local ice area at least once a month, and since getting back to college from winter break, my friends and I have already gone skating twice. Here in St. Paul, there’s a free outdoor rink Groveland Ice Rinks that’s super easy to get to from our school. Both weekends that we’ve gone have had great weather, and some of my friends who’ve never gone before are learning very quickly!

At my home rink, you do have to pay for skates, whereas at Groveland, everything is free, but it really depends on the ice rink. I also don’t really have a preference for indoor vs. outdoor rinks, although being outside when it’s nice out is definitely a bonus. Especially if you live in the northern half of the U.S., ice rinks aren’t super hard to find usually. In St. Paul alone, there’s seven different ice rinks that you can go to! Skating is definitely one of my favorite winter activities, and I know that I’ll do a lot more before spring gets here.

Here’s a photo of the Groveland Ice Rinks that my friend took the first weekend we were there!

Building Gingerbread Houses

This is one of my favorite winter activities, and a longstanding tradition of mine. For something like 15 years, I’ve been decorating gingerbread houses with my friends during the holidays. My mom started this tradition when I was really young, and it’s been something I’ve done ever since. This year, I actually didn’t get together with my friends to decorate them until after Christmas, but in my opinion, it doesn’t really matter when you decorate them, and keeping the tradition alive is so much fun for me.

We always buy pre-made gingerbread kits, but we also usually buy extra decorations. You can also make your own gingerbread, although it’s definitely difficult to do. This year, my friends and I also paired gingerbread house decorating with a movie marathon and a “board party”, where we each made different-themed boards to eat throughout the day. Whether you do just the gingerbread houses, or add on other activities, this would be such a fun tradition to start in your own life, and definitely share with me if you do!

I couldn’t find a photo of our gingerbread houses this year, but here’s my board (a dessert board) from that day!

Sledding

Getting back to the outdoor activities, sledding is a classic. It’s also one of the most versatile activities. Where I grew up, it’s very flat for the most part, so we really only had three “sledding hills” in town. In the Twin Cities, there are more hills, but I actually haven’t gone sledding here yet. Personally, I prefer ice skating or snowball fights to sledding, but it’s still such a fun activity, and it was one of the things I made sure to do with my friends at home before coming back to college after winter break.

Snowball Fights or Snowmen Building

Another essential winter activity is snowball fights. We always get excited when the snow is “good snowball snow”, as we describe it, because that means it’s time to throw snow at each other constantly. (This occurs not only at college but also when I’m home with my siblings;) And going along with the snowball fights is building a snowman. There’s usually a very small window of time where you can build a great snowman, and my friends and I got lucky right before going home for winter break. We actually built the snowman the night before I left to go home! The great thing about these two activities is that you can do them pretty much anywhere, as long as you have snow and some time.

St. Paul Winter Carnival

This is a new winter activity that I discovered this year! One of my friends found out about it, and we went to it last weekend. While the carnival is actually a multi-week event with a ton of different activities, we went to look at the ice sculpture competition in Rice Park. The sculptures were absolutely crazy! It was so much fun to walk around, hear the parade, and sit in the warming tent (it was freezing cold the weekend we went). I’d definitely recommend checking it out if you have the chance!

Here’s one of the sculptures at the festival – I told you they were crazy!

Themed Museum Exhibits

This is a little bit of a different winter activity, but it’s one that I think can be super fun! So many museums have themed exhibits, especially for the holidays, but throughout the winter season too. At home, there’s really only one museum in our area, but they do a really awesome Christmas tree competition throughout December, which is super fun to go to when we have a chance. They also have more general winter exhibits about my hometown and county that are so fun to see.

One of the ones I’m hoping to go to that isn’t technically a museum exhibit but is themed is the Como Park Conservatory Winter Flower Show. It sounds super cool, and Como Park is run through donations, so you don’t have to purchase an expensive ticket (though I definitely recommend donating what you can!). While I’ve been to Como Park many times in my childhood, I’ve never been to one of the flower shows, so I’m super excited to hopefully check it out sometime! (If you want to see it when I go, follow @diaryofasmalltowngirlblog on Instagram!)

Going to a Christmas Light Show

While it’s well past Christmas now, this is one of the activities that I make sure to do every year, and I always look forward to it. This year, we went to the GLOW Holiday Festival in St. Paul, as we were able to get free tickets through our college. Usually, my family goes to our local light show fundraiser, but we were in Arizona over Christmas, so we actually found a light show down there, which was also super fun. No matter where you do it, a light show is an absolute must for the winter season in my opinion.

Here’s a photo from the St. Paul GLOW Fest my friends and I went to in December! The tree in the middle was a lot bigger than it looks.

Drinking Hot Chocolate (And Sitting by a Fireplace!)

This winter activity is probably the most basic on the list, but it’s definitely one of my favorite things to do in the wintertime. At home, we have a fireplace in our living room, and one of my favorite things to do is to sit by the fire when it’s cold and snowy outside. At college, I don’t really have access to a fireplace, but my friends and I love sitting in a lounge and drinking hot chocolate while chatting or working on homework (or chatting while pretending to work on homework).

This is one of the best activities for when it’s too cold to do anything outside, which happens fairly often here in Minnesota, although this winter has been really beautiful for the most part. You can also drink tea, coffee, or any other hot drink if hot chocolate isn’t your thing. As long as you’re spending time with those you love, it’s totally worth it.

What Are Your Favorite Winter Activities?

Well, those are my favorite winter activities! Let me know below if I missed any or share your favorite winter activities. I absolutely love hearing from all of you, and I respond to every comment! As always, thank you so much for reading and sharing in this journey. See you next week!