Fall is the season where the fun stuff actually happens. It’s when traditions get made, when you end up spending a whole Saturday with your people, or a quiet morning by yourself at the farmers market. Either one counts.

So here are some lists of things to do this fall. Print them, stick them on the fridge, turn it into a game with the kids, race your sister to fill a whole row. I don’t care how you use them as long as you actually do. Cross things off. Make it the best fall you’ve had.

Fall Orchard and Farm Activities

This is the part of fall I plan my whole September around. Something happens to me the second there’s a hand-painted sign on the side of the road advertising pears, and it’s not rational. I will pull over. I will buy more than we can eat. I will get home and realize I now own eleven pounds of apples and no plan.

Go anyway. Go to the orchard, go to the cider mill and watch them press it, go stand in a pumpkin patch and let your kid pick the ugly lopsided one instead of the pretty round one you were eyeing. Feed the goats. Take the tractor ride even though you feel silly. These places are run by families who work all year for six weeks of visitors, and your ten dollars and your kids’ handprints on the fence are the whole point. Buy the absurdly large pumpkin. You will talk about it the entire drive home.

Here’s some ideas! 

Fall Leaf and Outdoor Activities

The window on this is about three weeks and then it’s gone, which is exactly why I never get tired of it. Every year I tell myself I’ll get out and walk more while the trees are doing their thing, and every year the good weeks slip by while I’m inside answering emails.

So this list is your permission slip. Jump in the leaf pile before you rake it into a bag. Take the long way home because the road by the river is better right now. Go on the same walk you always take and notice that it looks completely different than it did in August. You don’t need a destination or the right shoes or a plan. You need twenty minutes and a jacket.

Here is a list below for you while the leaves are giving you fall

Essential Fall Activities for the Season

These are the non-negotiables. The things that if the season ended and you hadn’t done them, you’d feel a little robbed.

Things like get your first apple cider of the season, or even the classic activity of carving pumpkins with your kids. The sweater that comes out of the bin smelling like last October. Flannel sheets on the bed. That first morning you stand in the kitchen with your hands around a hot mug and think, oh good, we’re here again.

None of it costs much and none of it takes long. That’s sort of the trick of it. The stuff that makes a season feel like a season is almost never the expensive part.

Click below for the download!

Fall Date Ideas for Couples

Now fall is THE time of year to go out with your partner. There are SO many people who prepare all year long just so you and your person can enjoy a night together. Let’s take advantage of this!!

You don’t have to plan something clever. Drive out to look at the leaves and get pie somewhere on the way back. Walk around a festival holding hands like teenagers. Sit on the porch with a blanket and cider after the kids are down and don’t look at your phones. Go to the corn maze and get genuinely annoyed with each other and then laugh about it. Some of our best conversations have happened lost in the dark

In fact if you don’t want to plan anything here’s a list to some of my favorite fall dates!

Fall Family Traditions to Start This Year

A tradition is just something you did twice on purpose. That’s it. It doesn’t have to be old or elaborate or handed down from your grandmother.

I got a borscht recipe from a man named Vladimir in a freezing Ukrainian kitchen twenty years ago, and now my kids ask for it in October. I had no idea at the time that it would turn into anything. That’s usually how it goes. You do a thing, somebody remembers it, and the next year they ask when you’re doing it again, and now it’s yours.

My kids have been completely indifferent to things I was sure they’d love. But one or two will catch, and in ten years those are the ones they’ll call home about.

Here’s a list of some fun, easy, and simple traditions! You’ll thank me later!

Halloween Activities for Families

There’s a specific joy in a kid deciding in mid-September exactly who they’re going to be, changing their mind four times, and then landing somewhere you never would have predicted.

Carve the pumpkins even though the guts are disgusting. Let them wear the costume around the house for three weeks before the actual night so it’s absolutely filthy by Halloween, because that’s what costumes are for. Walk the neighborhood in the cold and let them dump the bag out on the living room floor and sort it into piles. Eat some out of the bag on the way home. Nobody’s counting.

Here’s a list to get into the Halloween season!

Fall Food Experiences

You know this is my favorite section, so I’ll try to keep it short.

Fall cooking is the most forgiving cooking there is. Everything is a big pot of something. Everything gets better if you leave it alone longer. I have the perfect fall recipes already that can also help you check some of the activities off the list

• Abi’s Chicken Pot Pie
• Dirty Herbal Chai Latte
• Abi’s Borscht

(Check the “Freebies” page for more recipes)

It brings people together and here’s a list on how to do that!

Simple Creative Fall Activities

There’s something about this season that makes me want to make things with my hands, and I’ve stopped fighting it. 

Here’s the list BUT just remember, It does not have to look good. That is the whole point and also the hardest part. Make something slightly ugly with your own two hands and put it on the table anyway.

Cozy, Slow Fall Activities for a Slow Day at Home

Some of the best fall days involve doing almost nothing. Rain on the windows, nowhere to be, a book you’re actually reading instead of meaning to read. Leave the whole afternoon empty on purpose. Put the pot of soup on and let it sit there all day. Take a nap at two in the afternoon and feel zero guilt about it. Let the kids stay in pajamas until noon.

Here’s a list to help you have a slow, chill fall day!

Fall Adventures and Day Trip Ideas

You don’t have to move across the world. But go a little further than is convenient. Drive two hours to the festival everybody talks about. Camp one more weekend before it’s too cold to be any fun. Take the trip you keep putting off until the kids are older, because they will be older and you will be too.

Here’s a list of fun adventures and experiences to get your fall on.

Thanksgiving and November Activities

Thanksgiving and November are always kind of treated like a “hallway” from Halloween to Christmas. I love Thanksgiving but hate that it can be overlooked. It can be a quiet month so here’s a list to help make it fun and exciting and not just the “hallway.”

This fall is meant to be enjoyed take advantage of these lists!!! and let me know how you like it!

Xoxox,

Abi