Indoor winter activities for families

As I sit here typing it has started to rain at our house. Normally I love rain, thunderstorms and cloudy days but this time it’s different. I know that with THIS rain is coming our first cold front of the year, and I’m NOT happy about it. Looking forward to many cozy evenings wrapped up in a blanket and sipping hot cocoa from our parter for this sponsored post. Stephen’s Gourmet Hot Cocoa.

While we don’t get the blusteriest of winters here in Houston, we don’t quite know how to handle them. When my oldest was a toddler I started the tradition of convincing them that the parks and all other outdoor activities were off limits until it warmed up again. This tradition has served us well, and we’ve found lots of fun indoor things to do as a result.

If you are going stir crazy at home, there are of course indoor playgrounds to visit. We visit lots of fast food restaurants with playgrounds, and malls with indoor play areas for kids as well.

But so many times the MOST fun can be had at home with a cup of Hot cocoa, some festive music and a whole lot of adventure!

Put on a holiday production 

Have each person in the family prepare a special song or dance to put on a great show for everyone in the living room one evening. Dig through dresser drawers and closets to find funny costumes for everyone. You could even invite neighbor kids over to join in on the fun! When it’s all over, let each person choose what flavor of Stephen’s Hot Cocoa they want to drink. I love that it is so fast and easy t make, so you can customize each cup based on the child’s (or adult’s) preference.

Have a game competition 

Invite a group of friends over and set up game competitions. These can be family oriented games where each family is on their own team, or quick and silly games where people must compete in challenges like these. The winning team or person can choose a prize from various flavors of Stephen’s Hot Cocoa. There are tons of great flavor choices like Mint Truffle, Dark Chocolate, Candy Cane, Salted Caramel and S’mores.

Make an indoor skating rink

I love this idea from the Joyous Family blog. They made a super-easy indoor rink and allowed their kids to skate around doing tricks and even play a fun game of broom hockey. See how to make your own indoor skating rink here.

Make ornaments 

One of our favorite things to do is make an ornament each year. Sometimes we paint ceramic ones, sometimes we do salt dough and one year we made these gorgeous but EASY handprint ornaments. I love this tradition because it creates fun memories with my kids that we will see hanging on the tree every year from now on.

Bake Cookies 

We try to bake a different flavor of cookie each week in December. The kids love trying all the different flavors and it gives us a great collection of different flavors to share with people we love!

Have a cookie decorating party 

Make a lot of sugar cookies and then let the kids loose with all kinds of frosting and sprinkles. The kids will have tons of cookies they are proud of and you can bring them by a local nursing home, or to a sick neighbor or friend, along with a large canister of Stephen’s Hot Cocoa.

Build a blanket fort 

Pull all your chairs and couches together to make the biggest, best blanket fort EVER. Once my brother in law even pulled a mattress from my son’s bed to use as the bottom part of the fort. The kids LOVED having their mattress in the living room and it gave us a soft spot to watch movies, and even sleep in the living room.

Decorate for the holidays

The day after Thanksgiving we always try to decorate our house for Christmas. The tree goes up, special books and toys that we save ONLY for Christmastime come out to be read and played with again and we listen to Christmas carols.

This fun day of decorating together with the kids can only end one way (I bet you can guess how…) with Hot Cocoa. My kids love the S’mores flavor because it comes with little marshmallows in it.

For me, I’m just in love with the rich chocolatey taste. This makes delicious coffee creamer too, hello peppermint & chocolate coffee at home! They also make Stephen’s Cocoa in single-cups compatible with a Keurig machine.

Do you have favorite winter activities to do indoors with your kids? Share with us in the comments so we can get more ideas! Winter is going to be LONG and we need all the warm, indoor ideas we can get!