This cool crisp air and pumpkin spice everything has me really feeling like fall is finally here. I love light sweater weather (especially now that I’m 9 months pregnant) and breathing in those traditional autumn scents. It’s also the time when we make our fall family bucket list
Now is the season for pumpkin picking, corn mazes, and leaf peeping at all the beautiful colors on the trees, and we just can’t get enough.
Last year was my daughter’s first fall and I was so excited to bring her to the harvest festivals and do all the basic fall things as a family, but she was only 2 months old.
This year she’s a toddler with interests and more understanding of the world around her, so I can’t wait for her to experience these activities all over again with so much more awareness and excitement.
Here are some of my favorite activities to do as a family. I’ve grouped them into outdoor, apple, pumpkin, leaves, and Halloween activities.
We’ll try to fit them all in this season, but expecting another baby in the middle of October may make it a little difficult!
Outdoor Activities on Your Fall Family Bucket List
1. Harvest/Fall Festival
Almost all farms jump on the band wagon to host a large fall festival this time of year. You can find ones in your local area that include fun activities/games for the kids, food trucks, corn mazes, pumpkin & apple picking, petting zoos, and much more.
They may even have educational activities like milking a cow or seeing a sheep get sheared. You can buy fall decor for your home or sample ciders and donuts. The whole family can enjoy this! Big tip: don’t bring a stroller if you have small children. For babies, a carrier is best to move around the grass with.
2. Corn Maze
Get lost on purpose or bring the map with you so you can definitely find your way out quickly. If you have a baby or toddler, use a carrier instead of a stroller because they can be really muddy or just difficult to maneuver your way around with a bulky stroller. You can check your local community websites to find one in your area.
3. Hayride
These can be found at local farms that usually have pumpkin picking or fall festivals. The kids will love sitting on the tractor with hay all around them and heading to the pumpkin patch.
4. Have a Bonfire
If you have a firepit at home, this is perfect weather to sit outside and snuggle by the fire. The kids will love roasting marshmallows or making s’mores, even telling ghost stories and singing campfire songs.
5. Have a Fall Picnic
Pack a lunch for the family and have a picnic at a park under a beautiful autumn tree. The weather is usually perfect in the afternoon that you may only need a light sweater.
Talk about the weather, trees, colors, etc. especially if you have a toddler who is just learning and taking in all of these new sensory experiences.
6. Go Camping!
Fall is one of the best times to go camping. If you’re looking for a weekend adventure on your fall family bucket list, my vote is camping.
Whether you use tents or rent a cabin in the woods, camping helps kids and adults alike disconnect from the world and have fun together as a family.
7. Watch a Local Football Team
Go support your local schools and watch a football game or two. Kids love going to local football games to watch the band and all the people.
Football loving families even host fun tailgating parties for local teams!
8. Check Out a National Park
Do you have any national parks nearby? Head there to check out the fall foliage and see what activities they have. Many national parks host events for families to enjoy.
9. Go to Fall Festivals
One of my favorite things about fall is all the festivals we have in the area. Our family has checked our Renaissance festivals, old-fashioned themed festivals, pumpkin festivals, and everything in between.
10. Get Fall Family Pictures Taken
Something we always have on our fall family bucket list is to get family pictures taken.
Okay, this really ISN’T for the kids, but I cherish the pictures we take together as a family!
Related: 10 Tips for a DIY Family Photo Shoot
Pumpkin Activities
11. Visit a Pumpkin Patch
Everyone can pick their own pumpkin and you can choose to use it to decorate your front porch, carve, or paint. Usually farms offer a hayride to the pumpkin patch and you can pick them right off the vine.
12. Carve Pumpkins
You can opt for the standard triangle eyes and
You can buy booklets of stencils or download and print them free from the internet. Let the kids choose from witches and ghosts to their favorite football team logo. This site offers a wide variety of stencils for free.
13. Paint a pumpkin
If your kids are a little too young to use the sharp knives to carve, have them paint pumpkins. Any paint or paintbrush will do, and you can paint faces, logos, scenery, or anything you wish. You can find so many ideas online and the options are endless!
14. Roast pumpkin seeds
If you carved your pumpkin, save those pumpkin seeds! Just toss them with some butter and salt, lay them flat on a baking sheet in one even layer, and roast them for 45 minutes at 400 degrees. Pumpkin seeds make a healthy snack and your kids will probably be excited to taste some of the pumpkin.
Apple Activities You Need on a Fall Family Bucket List
15. Apple Picking
September is a great time for apple picking. It’s still early fall and there’s plenty of orchards that offer pick-your-own-apple fields. The weather is typically still very warm at this time of year.
Spend time in the orchards trying every different kind of apple. You’ll be amazed at how many different types of apples there are (not just red, green, and yellow!). They usually have signs next to the trees to tell you what kind of apples they are and you can have a little taste test with your family to figure out which you like the best.
Also, don’t forget to bring a blanket to have a little picnic in the orchards- snack on your apples and any other treats you have brought with you.
Related Post: 30 Awesome Fall Birthday Party Ideas for Young Kids
16. Make apple sauce
What are you going to do with all those apples now? Your kids will have a blast. Try out this super easy-to-follow recipe for apple sauce.
17. Apple Stamping
This is a fun activity for toddlers. Cut the apples in half and use paint to make the apple shape like a stamp. You can use that to just stamp all over a piece of paper or actually make it into a pretty picture or design. Here is a great and simple activity to do with your kids from Crafty Morning.
18. Apple matching/sorting by color
If you have toddlers that are just starting to learn their colors, this is a great way to teach them some primary colors like red, yellow, and green. If you have gotten a variety of colors of apples, have the child sort them into groups while stating what color they are.
19. Make Caramel Apples
They are super easy and your kids will LOVE them. Here’s a quick tutorial:
Remove the stem from the apples and press a craft stick into the top. Butter a baking sheet. Place caramels and milk in a microwave-safe bowl, and microwave 2 minutes, stirring once.
Allow to cool very briefly. Roll each apple quickly in caramel sauce until well coated. Place on prepared sheet to set. You can also add chopped nuts to the outside right after you roll in the caramel, if you wish.
20. Enjoy a Cup of Apple Cider
One of my favorite fall drinks is apple cider. It tastes delicious cold and warm, so make sure you grab some gallons when you visit local orchards.
Fall Foliage & Leaf Activities
21. Take a drive or hike
Oh, leaf-peeping season. I could drive through wooded areas checking out the beautiful colors of the leaves for days.
If you have a mountain preserve, park, reservoir, or hiking trails in your area, thats a perfect place to go, but even driving down certain highways that have lots of surrounding trees can be beautiful this time of year.
If you’re near any of these places, you probably know how beautiful your area is, but if you live close by- take a drive to see the colors. The timing can change year to year on when the best weeks to see the leaves are- from mid October to early November usually seems like the best time.
22. Play in the Leaves
I have so many fond memories of jumping in leave piles, let your kids do the same and if you have a small hill even better-take a slide or tumble down a hill in leaves is just good old-fashioned fun!
23. Take a nature hike to pick up leaves
Have your child collect leaves while on a nature hike. If you don’t have any wooded parks or trails by you, you can easily do this in your backyard or a street nearby with lots of trees.
Another thing I loved to do as a kid was step on those crunchy leaves. Your children will have so much fun with this- trying to find the crunchiest leaves to step on and hear that crinkling sound.
24. Leaf painting and stamping
Similar to apple stamping, you can use paint to cover one side of a leaf, place it on a paper, and have a beautiful design from the leaves you collected.
25. Leaf matching/sorting by color
If your toddler is starting to learn his colors, you can sort the leaves by color as well. Try to get them to collect a variety of colors including, reds, yellows, brown, orange, and even green, and sort them into piles while learning colors.
26. Make a collage of leaves
On a piece of construction paper, you can glue those leaves you collected to make a nice collage. Draw a tree trunk and glue the leaves on top to make your own tree!
Fall Family Activities for Your Home
27. Decorate your house with fall colors and themes
There are so many beautiful ways to decorate your home for autumn. Now you can find fall decor in any store.
My favorite stores to shop at for seasonal decorations are Hobby Lobby, Home Goods, and Michaels. Just make sure you use coupons because they’re always floating around! I also love fresh fall decor like mums and pumpkins for your doorstep.
28. Fall scented candles
This season has probably my favorite scents of all time. I have various candles and wax warmers throughout my home that fill it with scents of pumpkin pie and autumn leaves.
The previously listed stores also have great candle scents, as well as Yankee Candle. Just strolling through the candle aisle and smelling in and every one is also a guilty pleasure of mine!
29. Make a fall wreath
Wreathes are super easy to make and your kids can help out too! No sharp tools are necessary. I prefer to purchase my wreathes and flowers from Michaels.
Use a grapevine wreathe like this one and just arrange your flowers how ever you wish by sticking the stem through the twigs in the wreathe. They stay really well in there- no glue even necessary!
Here is my tutorial for how to make an easy, affordable fall wreathe.
30. Bake a pumpkin or apple pie
Whats even better than filling your house with pumpkin pie scented candles? Filling your house with an actual pumpkin pie baking in the oven! Find a great recipe online and get baking- let your little ones help too!
31. Read a book about fall or pumpkins
My favorite toddler book is Where is baby’s pumpkin? Start teaching them about the seasons and all things fall related.
32.Have a Movie Marathon
Whether you want to watch Halloween-themed movies or just a few classics, this is the best time of the year to have a movie marathon.
Make huge bowls of popcorn and binge movies. If it’s nice outside, consider watching the movies outside with a projector!
Halloween Activities Kids Love!
33. Watch pumpkin or H alloween movies
Not too scary if your child is young, but It’s the great pumpkin, Charlie Brown is a classic and they re-run it a ton over the month of October. All of the new cartoons have their own versions too.
34. Put up spooky decorations
Get the whole neighborhood spooked when they see your creepy house looks at night! We just got these projection lights for our house and they’re the talk of the town! It also makes for super easy decorating. Get them while they’re hot!
35. Make a scarecrow
This can take a little more handy work, but if you’re up for the challenge, making your own scarecrow is a fun activity. Here is one idea on how to do that.
36. Make or shop for halloween costumes
If you have older kids, I’m sure they’re itching to get to the Halloween store to buy their costumes. It could be a fun family activity to make your own!
It may take a bit of thought and creativity, but sometimes the DIY costumes come out better than store bought! However, if you’re trying to save your sanity and time (which is what I’m all about), go for store bought!
Related: 35 Adorable DIY Baby Halloween Costumes
37. Make your child’s trick or treat bag
There are a lot of DIY crafts during the fall, but if you have the time, you might as well spend it crafting! Make your child their own personalized bag to take around with them for Halloween and they can also use it for years to come.
38. Tell Ghost Stories Around a Fire
If you have a firepit at home, tell ghost stories around the fire. This will be sure to creep out your kids (make sure they’re old enough to handle it).
39. Go to a Haunted House
If you have older kids, going to a haunted house is something you might want to try. For those of us with only little kids, many haunted houses offer kid-friendly or sensory-friendly times with the lights on to reduce the scares.
40. Go Trick or Treating
No fall family bucket list is complete without going trick or treating! That’s the ultimate goal for most little kids, and as a parent, I love to watch their excitement.
Marissa is a Pediatric Occupational Therapist turned stay-at-home mom who loves sharing her tips, tricks, and ideas for navigating motherhood. Her days are filled starting tickle wars and dance parties with three energetic toddlers and wondering how long she can leave the house a mess until her husband notices. When she doesn’t have her hands full of children, she enjoys a glass (or 3) of wine, reality tv, and country music. In addition to blogging about all things motherhood, she sells printables on Etsy and has another website, teachinglittles.com, for kid’s activity ideas.
