Fun Fall Family Activities

The sunny orange and brown days of fall are lurking around the corner when wonderful fall activities can begin. Fall is the favorite time of year for many as the summer heat dissipates to be replaced by crisp sunny fall days and cool fall evenings. Every family has favorite fall activities that they enjoy sharing together. These fall activities become favorite family traditions. Here are three very traditional fall activities for your family. If you've never tried them, this could be the beginning of new family traditions.

September Fun with Apples

Late August, September and October bring the apple harvest to our part of the country. Several local orchards beckon us to bring the family out for apple picking fall activity. Pick a sunny cool afternoon for this outing. Dress with long sleeves to avoid sunburn and scratches on arms from grasping for that perfect apple high in the tree. Most apple orchards grow dwarf varieties but even those can need a bit of stretching.

Apple picking suggestion: Don't pick the apples from the ground. Search for unblemished apples that are firm, with no spots, and pull gently from the tree without hard tugging. If an apple resists being picked, it isn't quite ripe yet. Leave it for another apple picker.

Pick a lot of apples on your trip. If you've never had a fresh picked apple, you're going to be amazed at the difference in flavor. You'll need lots of apples for all the wonderful apple treats that are fun this time of year; homemade applesauce, caramel apples, apple pie, apple pancakes, fried apples, and just plain juicy crunchy, apple eating!

Don't forget the apple cider. Many apple orchards have cider presses and taking home a gallon of apple cider is a perfect addition to this fun family fall activity.

When you get home from the orchard, plan an apple party for family or friends. Make some of those apple treats, especially caramel apples, and play bobbing for apples. It really is a fun game to play and perhaps even more for kids to watch. Watching Dad and Mom soak their faces in a tub of water might be the best fall family activity of all!

October Halloween Pumpkin Fun

Another fun fall family activity is a visit to the pumpkin patch. Whether you grow your own pumpkins in the garden and you nurture and watch the pumpkins get bigger and bigger or you take a trip to a local pumpkin farm or patch in your community, pumpkins are one of fall's most fun items.

On your family fall activity trip to the pumpkin patch, take time to let everyone choose their own pumpkin! While you're there, you can usually pick up other fun fall items,like cornstalks and gourds to decorate with, bales of straw, apple cider, and more apples if you depleted your September harvest!

Pumpkin carving is an art the whole family can enjoy. You can do the old-fashioned carving as the perfect Sunday afternoon fall family activity or you can paint and draw the design on. If you choose carving the child can draw on the design with a permanent marker and then an adult can do the actual cutting. And of course having some pumpkin muffins or even pumpkin pie is the perfect way to use all that pumpkin. You can buy smaller pie pumpkins that make perfect desserts.

November Feast Time

Fall family fun culminates with the Thanksgiving Feast. Planning and preparing for this should be a family activity that everyone engages in. Let the kids decorate place cards or place fun woven placemats. Before the main event, let them look through magazines and cut out pictures of decorations or favorite foods.

Kids can even help make the feast. Plan dishes they can help make, like cooking cranberries and making homemade cranberry relish, pumpkin pies and relish trays.

Engage them in the cleaning of the house and putting up fall decorations for the party. Preparing for special family fall activities should be something that every family member does, not just Mom!

Other simple fall family fun activities

And don't forget all those other simple fall activities like raking leaves and jumping in the piles together, taking a fall hike in the woods and seeing the fall colors, collecting nuts and shelling them, going to a football game, and having warm mulled apple cider on a crisp fall afternoon. Build the first fire of the season and make a family tradition out of the activity.

Even if your family doesn't participate in traditional Halloween activities, fall holds lots of fun family activities. Create your own special traditions. One of our favorite is a late fall camping trip when it's really cool outside. Something about shivering in your sleeping bag and bundling up for a warm campfire outdoors in the fall air, just brings the changes of the season into my heart. Celebrating fall lasts for three months, enjoy a favorite fall family activity while your children are young enough to build memories.