Weeknight Winter Walking: Fun For The Whole Family

The days go by fast, especially in winter. Once mid-winter hits in Northern regions, the sun simply isn’t available after the school and work day are through. When you’re looking out the windows into the dark street, getting your kids dressed and heading out into the cold, dark night might seem a little unhinged. After all, when six o’clock is just as dark as midnight, it’s time to snuggle down, right?

The fact is, there are hours between dinner and bedtime. It may be dark outside your door, but the world out there still has plenty to offer. Going outside at night can sharpen the mind, ease anxiety, and better the general mood.

My son asks for what he calls “tiny walks” most nights. The title is a good one because that’s exactly what they are. We don’t go far, but we might be out for a while because distractions along the way are encouraged.

These walks often come with missions. Maybe we’re going to check out a snow mountain. We might be headed out on a neighborhood Christmas light tour. The mission can be as simple as checking to see if the neighbor’s cat is in their front window again. The more walks you go on, the more missions your family will generate.

In this article, I’ll go over some ways to get the family on board (including yourself) and a few ways to stay safe and seen as you’re navigating through the night.

Find Your Mission

Kids like to go out after dark. It’s exciting stuff! The world looks different, mysterious. Now, I’ve always liked finding a mission on walks. I’ve been doing it long before having a kid. After all, when you have a dog that wants to go on two walks a day, you’ve gotta find something to make those strolls interesting.

Your family’s mission, if they choose to accept it, could be something as simple as checking on a neighbor’s Christmas display or as decadent as going out for hot cocoa at the coffee shop down the street.

Below, you’ll see a few winter walk mission ideas that we’ve drummed up over the years.

• Looking for sunset: If twilight is coming in fast, this time-sensitive mission can get everyone out the door in a hurry. Looking for a view of the sunset in town can be tricky, so this mission has a sense of puzzle-solving aspect to it.
  
  While it won’t work at the height of winter, this is a fun walk in late fall and early spring. We’ve even been lucky enough to have the town’s Christmas lights light up on the way back home!
• Library walks: Do a little research to find out if your library is open late on certain weekday evenings. If you’re lucky enough to live within walking distance from the library, a weekly library walk is one of the coziest family activities available.
  
  It feels great to arrive at a warm location full of books after a brisk stroll outdoors.
• Little Library Walks: Raid your family bookshelves and drop off books at the nearest little library. After you drop them off, you can return at a later date to see if the books have been taken and speculate on who may have taken them.
• Moon Walks: Get inspired by the beautiful book, City Moon by Rachel Cole, and just go out looking for the moon. The moon can surprise you, emerging from behind buildings with a magic glow when you least expect it.
• Cocoa Walks: It’s nice to take a tiny walk after dinner. Make your walk into a dessert retreat when you either head to your local coffee shop for cocoa or pack some hot chocolate in a thermos and drink it at a beautiful location like a lit-up park gazebo or river overlook.
• Christmas Light Walks: Check out the holiday displays in your neighborhood. Kids love playing scout by spotting the next display. Admiring all the decorations, big and small, is a great way to build community.

The missions really are endless.

One of my favorite lockdown memories was calling for Chinese takeout from a place that’s about two blocks away from our home. Then we’d load our one-year-old into our all-terrain wagon with a mountain of blankets and roll on over. We’d use access blankets from the mountain to keep our Kung Pao Beef and Crab Rangoons warm by wrapping up the to-go bag and nestling the bundle of goodness into the bottom of the wagon.

Then we’d book it back home as fast as possible, racing the cold to save our savory treat. We’d be warm to the core when we got back, settling in for a night of greasy food and movies with the satisfaction of having braved the cold. It was a tiny walk with a huge reward.

Talk about “mission accomplished.”

Stay Safe: Light Up the Night

A huge part of staying safe while heading outdoors after the sun goes down is making sure you’re seen by passing vehicles. Whether you’re on a country road or dealing with busy streets, cars are typically the biggest threat to any pedestrian’s safety.

Here are a few hacks we use to ensure that we’re seen on our dimly lit streets. Do they make us seem cool? Absolutely not but some of these tips are pretty, darn fun.

Wear High Viz

Everyone in your walking party should be visible, from kids to your four-legged family members. High-viz hats are the easiest way to up your visibility in a hurry. I must admit, I’ve gotten some light-hearted ribbing from my neighbors for wearing my neon yellow hat in town. They say I look like I should be out hunting. Sure, the color might be a little over the top, but I do a lot of biking, and I want to ensure people will see me whenever I’m cruising around.

My kid has a matching bright yellow cap with a headlamp attached, but I wouldn’t recommend a light-up cap. It’s easy to imagine how hard it is for a kid to remember to turn off their hat before putting it away. I certainly don’t plan on buying the specialty replacement batteries the hat requires every time it gets left on overnight.

Instead, here are a few accessories you can use to help your family stay visible while navigating through the night.

• High-vis bands were designed for commuting bikers. They have shiny accents that are designed to catch the gleam of passing headlights. Small enough to slip in your coat pocket, you can casually slip one around the wrists of everyone in your family. Secured with a hook and loop fastener, they can easily be fitted over jackets and snow pants.
• Go full safety monitor. Wear a high-vis safety vest. They can be thrown over a jacket and folded up to fit in a pocket once you arrive at your destination.
• Protect your pooch by outfitting your dog with a high-vis harness. Light-up versions are also available.

Add Some Light

Of course, if you want to take visibility to the next level, bringing lights is a fun option.

In fact, you can feed two birds with one scone when you give your kid their very own light for an after-dark winter walk! They’ll be motivated to go on the walk and play with their light, while the flashlight will help ensure they’re seen.

Lighting Tips:

• Dim and Rechargeable: Lights come in all shapes and sizes, but it’s best to find one that is dim enough to use in a neighborhood setting. Since kids struggle to remember to turn off lights, we’ve found that a rechargeable light is the best option.
• Find an option your kid likes: Going hand-free with a headlamp is a popular choice, but my kiddo seems to like his lantern-style light the most. Maybe he was Paul Revere in another life, or maybe it’s the gentle glow the lantern gives off, lighting up his surrounding area without spotlighting the shadows around him.
• Illuminating strollers and wagons for visibility is a great way to give parents of younger children peace of mind.

When our son was only a couple of months old, we took him to a nighttime event and realized quickly that the handy wagon he was sleeping in was a tripping hazard for the unsuspecting revelers around us. The solution was obvious: add lights to our wagon! Using electrical tape that blended in nicely with the black frame of our wagon, we secured fairy lights all along the frame.

We ended up keeping the lights on for the whole winter. Our neighborhood walks were less stressful because we knew that our low-lying wagon could be seen by passing vehicles. Lighting up the wagon we use as a stroller made our family into a walking winter celebration every time we took an after-dinner stroll.

It was ridiculous. It was fun. It was cozy. It gave us peace of mind. What more could you ask for?

Our kid typically refuses rides in the wagon these days. It’s great that he prefers the freedom of walking or pushing his balance bike, but I miss the long walks we used to take when he needed a lift. Apparently, I’m not alone in this mindset. I caught my husband stringing the wagon with lights in the garage the other day and my heart leapt in my chest. It looked so pretty, ready for a cozy stroll among holiday lights.

Maybe we’ll still get to take our wagon out once it’s too snowy for the bike. We’ve both been launching a not-so-subtle pro-wagon campaign around our kid. If we play our cards right, we could be rolling this December.

Delights of the Night

The night might not seem welcoming, but it’s full of ways to delight your whole family. A tiny walk is all it takes to discover some of its secrets. Before you head out, remember to go out prepared. If you live in a wet and cold area, be sure to wear shoes with traction and plenty of layers to keep cozy.

Cover the ears and hands of your kids, of course, but don’t forget about yourself. If you’re not comfortable, you’re not going to have the patience to stand around as your nice and toasty kid takes in the moon from the top of a snow pile.

Remember when we were young? The night was an exciting, exotic new world. When you go out with your kids, you might feel some of that delight returning. If you’re not taken by whimsy, and you’re still feeling reluctant to head out into the cold, dark night, just remind yourself that getting outside at night can help your kids sleep better and help clear your head, something we all need after dinner rush.

A family walk after dark can work wonders. It can drum up unique family conversations and create unique, spontaneous experiences. So go ahead. Find your mission, slip on your boots, zip up, and head out. Adventure is waiting!