How To Spark a Love of Nature in the Colder Months

Winter offers us unique opportunities to connect with the natural world in a fresh and exciting way, and spending time outside, even in the frost and drizzle, can be excellent bonding time for you and your family.

Improve your mood, get rid of those winter blues, aid your mental health and encourage curiosity for you and the kids.

No matter if you're a solo adventurer, a couple, or a family, make this winter an outdoor adventure that will inspire you and spark a long and intimate bond with nature.

Let’s take a look at how you can enjoy a winter of outdoor adventures. 

Seasonal Experiences for Everyone

Not only is winter everyone’s favourite time of year (Christmas is calling!), but it’s also where we can observe some major transformations in nature. 

As we head into winter, we get stunning colours and deep contrasts. It’s time for real sensory engagement for adults and kids. Play in the snow, chase the frost patterns on leaves, explore country lanes, teach the kids to spot birds and follow animal tracks; there are plenty of opportunities. 

One thing that is consistent every year is the mud! Make sure you’re well prepared with proper wellies; keeping the kids’ feet warm and dry is key to allowing them to enjoy the outdoors over winter.  

Embrace Winter with Joy

It may seem obvious, but one of the best ways to connect with nature is simply to head outside. 

To fully enjoy being outside in all weather types, you do need to be prepared, and bundling up in quality waterproof jackets, wellies, and warm garments means you can adventure for as long as your legs will carry you. 

Get out and explore your local park on a cold morning; it will have a totally different feel with frosty decorations adorning the grass and trees. 

Riverside walks can also be totally transformed by winter, with flowing waters, icicles, and atmospheric river banks. 

Welcoming Nature into Daily Life

One thing we tend to do in this country is consider our weekends as the time to break out of the house and explore, but why should we wait? 

Nature doesn’t need to be reserved for a long Sunday hike or a trip away; it’s out there, ready and waiting to be noticed:

• Frosty school runs where you and the kids crunch through leaves.

• Spend your morning coffee in the garden.

• A lunch break stroll through the local park, wrapped up warm and spot robins flitting between the trees.

These little moments can help us to be more mindful and present during winter, embracing the natural world around us.

Get Winter-Gear Ready

If you’re thinking of doing some proper outdoorsy stuff like long hikes over rough terrain, wilderness exploration, or full day trips, then the better prepared you can be, the more you’ll enjoy your wintery excursion.

Being prepared means more immersion for you and your kids, and we already know that having the right gear to see you through will make a huge difference. Investing in durable outdoor gear means you’ll be protected from the elements throughout this winter and for winters to come.

If you need some thermal protection for your young explorers, then, aside from the obvious coat, great thermal base layers are the ideal way to ensure you can spend the entire day warm and happy as a family.

Moisture wicking materials, eco-friendly packaging, thermal layers and waterproofing will all make a huge difference to your connection with the winter weather, taking you from sad, cold and damp, to happy, warm and dry. 

Make Winter Adventures, Even Easier

Outdoor scavenger hunts can be a great way to embrace nature in winter, even if it’s a quick one. You can teach your kids to observe seasonal wildlife, draw the changing landscapes and collect trinkets from the natural world. And for adults, using time spent outside, no matter how short, can be restorative, calming and downright enjoyable; no matter what the weather is saying!

For families, small home touches can also make winter adventures easier to embrace. A roaring fire welcomes you back after a muddy outing, while blinds let in the softer winter light and keep your space cosy. Setting up a drying area for all your wet gear and a grab-and-go area by the door makes getting everyone out the door a whole lot easier for those spontaneous adventures. 

Let your home reflect the change of seasons and encourage you to head out there and enjoy it first hand. 

Social and Family Adventures

We all know that spending time in nature can allow us to heal, simply by the way we feel during and after a nature session. This healing energy can apply to pretty much any time spent outdoors, as long as you are mindful. 

But yet another thing we tend to overlook is that this mindfulness, this ecotherapy, can actually be brought into all of our time outdoors, whether it’s solo, as a family, or with friends. 

Sharing nature with friends and family can heighten the benefits we enjoy, but it might take some time to get it right.

Try engaging your companions, or family friends, in activities that revolve around the natural world, like winter photography meet-ups, family scavenger hunts or forest play dates. This physical interaction with nature will allow you to deepen your own connection with nature and enjoy a sense of community built around the natural world. 

Foster Year-Round Curiosity

So there you have it, a few ways that you can spark a love of nature, even in the colder months of winter. 

Winter doesn’t need to be a barrier to enjoying nature; instead, it can be a time of drama, colour, picturesque beauty and bracing vitality with your family. 

Learn to rediscover the joys of exploration, and begin instilling this passion in your kids, your friends and your family. Before you know it, you’ll have a year round window to enjoy the joys of being in nature.

Get out into the world, get yourselves kitted out properly, enjoy the changing seasons and let the seasons unfold in front of you, with all its beauty, colour and frosty vistas.