There’s nothing like immersing ourselves in fun autumn activities to help us feel and celebrate the dawn of the cooler months. After the challenging year and a half that we’ve had, we all deserve to feel some semblance of normalcy, even if it’s just through simple hobbies and activities that we can enjoy with our families and friends. Here are some distinctly autumn activities to help you enjoy the new season.
Celebrate the spooky season
Fall is here, which can mean two things: Halloween and Thanksgiving. The latter is for celebrating with family; the former is for having some fun with friends we haven’t seen in a while. Do you love wearing fun costumes and the general merrymaking atmosphere of the spooky season?
Then consider going to a Halloween haunted house experience with your friends who love the horror genre like you. Or decorate your home with pumpkins of all shapes, sizes, and colors. There’s nothing like celebrating the spooky season early to usher in fall.
Let your creativity run wild as you style your home
Speaking of decorating your home, now may be the best time to let out your favorite fall decor and design elements since parties might be back on the table. Here are some fall home decor trends and DIY craft ideas that you can look into this year:
Halloween
- Consider painting plants and flowers black to add an edge to your table centerpieces.
- Add some fake spider webs and spiders to your hanging paper lanterns.
- Use bare branches as a centerpiece. Just spray paint them with different colors, depending on the color palette you want to go with this year. The best part is that it’s free since you can find dead branches in your yard or anywhere in your neighborhood.
- Create a snake wreath using plastic snakes.
- Paint pumpkins of various sizes in different feminine colors like pink to incorporate an eye-popping mix of shades in your house.
Thanksgiving
- Use fabric scraps and old quilts to create your own pumpkin centerpiece. With some hot glue and round pieces and scraps of fabric, you can shape the quilts to look like a pumpkin that looks perfect on a long farmhouse table beside your greenery and seasonal flowers.
- Buy some small pumpkins and paint them in different shades of pink and red to evoke a stunning ombre effect for your Thanksgiving table. This can also work for other colors—decide on a color palette you want to go with this year.
- Create a wreath using different sizes of pine cones and paint them fall colors like beige, yellow, and orange.
- Use apples as candle holders for longer candles. Just make sure to choose apples that are a bit wider in girth so that you don’t run the risk of your candle toppling over.
- Buy cinnamon sticks and use them as your guests’ place cardholders.
Take a scenic drive
If you’re still not up for hosting or attending parties, why not go through a scenic drive in places with orange and warm foliage? The East Coast is known for its scenic highways that go through some beautiful fall landscape, like Vermont and other areas surrounding New York. You can spend a night in a romantic bed and breakfast and bask in the cottagecore atmosphere of these places.
Run a 5K marathon
If you find that you’ve somehow let yourself go fitness-wise in the past year, autumn is an excellent time to start getting fir again since the cooler weather makes it more bearable to do some physical activity. Consider signing up for a Turkey Trot or a fall 5K—the best way to get yourself ready for the gastronomic festivities heading your way, from Halloween to Thanksgiving to Christmas to New Year. Work out to pig out, as they say—but all in healthy moderation. It’s a win-win!
Visit a local pumpkin patch
Going to a local pumpkin patch is good for everybody: You get to pick the best pumpkins for your decor and Thanksgiving meals, you get to experience side activities like going on hayrides, and you support local farmers, too. Driver over to your nearest local pumpkin patch and make a day of it with your family or friends.
The changing of seasons is always a good reminder that there we can always start anew. If you have been vaccinated and if your state allows the activities you want to do, don’t hesitate to allow yourself some fun. We all deserve it after what has been a challenging past year and a half.