Family Traditions: Celebrating Winter and Snow

by Jyl Johnson Pattee on December 14th, 2018 | 1 Comment »

Winter is full of family traditions (like this delicious one) but none that our family gets as excited for as much as the first snowfall of the year. Regardless of whether it's the first or the 15th snowfall, families can make memories involving snow that last all season long!

Snow is a big deal in our family. I'm from Mesa, Arizona—the Valley of the Sun—but even still, I spent my childhood driving a few hours every Saturday during the winter months to go skiing.

Then, I married Troy Pattee. You may know him online. And if you do, you probably know that he is a ski-a-holic. He often drops the kids off at school in the winter, drives up to Park City Mountain Resort (45 minutes from our house), skis his heart out, and returns just in time to pick the kids up from school.

But whether we are on the slopes (by we, I mean Troy and our boys since I've long since retired from skiing), sledding or playing in our hilly backyard or at the nearby park, or driving around watching the flurries come down, there is something magical about when it snows.

5 Tips for Celebrating Snowfalls

Here are five tips for making the most out of snow days:

Get everyone their own special mug.
Choose a family hot drink: hot chocolate (I prefer mine with peppermint), caramel cider (my personal favorite), or tea. Get all the ingredients or mixes ready ahead of time.
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Want to try something new? Try making Salted Caramel Hot Chocolate and Homemade Vanilla Marshmallows from scratch. It never disappoints and is a fun family activity in and of itself.
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Once there is enough snow on the ground, participate in your favorite outdoor winter activity together: skiing, snow boarding, tubing/sledding, snow shoeing, making snow angels, building a snow man, having a friendly snowball fight, driving around and watching the snow fall, doing donuts on the ice, etc.
After you have had your fill of family fun and togetherness in the snow, head back inside to warm up with your favorite hot drink.
Make sure to take pictures to capture the memories. If you do this every year, once you are warm, you can look at pictures together of how you've celebrated in years' past, and relive the fun all over again.

What are your family traditions surrounding the first snowfall of the year?

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Jyl Johnson Pattee

An active part of the Mom It Forward team, Jyl primarily writes about parenting, social good, and all things travel related. In a past life, Jyl was an award-winning copywriter and designer of corporate training programs for Fortune 100 companies. Offline, Jyl is married to @TroyPattee; a mom to two teen boys and a beagle named #Hashtag; loves large amounts of cheese, dancing, and traveling; and lives in the beautiful Rocky Mountains. Topping her bucket list is the goal to visit 50 countries by the time she's 50.