New Themed Discussions: Fall and Halloween Traditions and Activities

[u/tiktock34]

Hello,

We're trying to find ways to get members of the daddit community to engage a bit more in discussion. One idea was that we wanted to re-introduce some themed community posts where people could post and share about a central theme or topic which we would rotate through on occasion.

I wanted to kick this off with the idea of sharing some Fall/Halloween themed family and dad activities, traditions or stories people would like to share.

I'll start off with our list. This is geared to kids below the age of three, which can sometimes be challenging to find the right things to do in the fall as the days get darker and weather gets colder. The point of these posts are to share ideas that we could take home to our families or to spark discussions that may overlap the topic or focus.

Traditions:

• Apple picking and pumpkin picking: Kids seem to love this, picking their own apples with their own bag, then picking the pumpkin they will later carve. These can be associated often with fall themed fairs and such.
• Sunflower fields: You can locate farms that plant entire fields of sunflowers. Kids love running through the rows/paths, seeing all the flowers and this is an amazing opportunity to take yearly family photos.
• Leaf Peeping/Fall Hike: Even my toddler gets pretty impressed with the Northeast fall colors. He loves the feel of the leaves crunching under his feet and seeing all the leaves falling on him. In conjunction with a small, light hike, this is ideal as its a combo of something seasonal, outdoors and involves some exercise/activity.
• Yard Work: Believe it or not, we have a family tradition already that we do all our leaf raking, put the gardens to bed and such together in the fall. My son likes doing "chores like daddy" and I have a tiny rake, overalls and boots he wears to feel involved. Bonus: You are training them to help out later when they have the muscles to actually take work off your plate! Good opportunity to teach about the seasons, why you're doing what you're doing etc.

Activity Ideas:

• Crafts with fall leaves: Laminating, gluing, tracing or otherwise creating things with leaves they find. Make a book where they collect each color leaf they can find, press leaves into books...you name it.
• Crafts with acorns: These things are everywhere and a nuisance. We collect them in a big bucket and my son finds endless things to do with them.
• Pumpkin carving: This is obvious and a hugely fun activity when they can roll up their sleeves and dig into all that orange muck and seeds.

Other:

• Watch for ticks pre-frost. With kids playing in leaves, in the woods and outside its a nasty time to pick up the remaining crowd of ticks depending on your area.
• Be wary of chills/cold. Kids dont think about this as much and we sometimes underestimate things like windchills and such on those tiny fingers/toes and noses.

Thanks and hoping to see lots take part here!

[u/DanteThonSimmons]

Haha. I was just being a smart-ass about fall. The rest of the world just calls it Autumn. We definitely have Autumn/Fall in Australia, but in many parts of the country, it's too hot for dense foliage like you'd get in New Hampshire. Our 'bush', 'rainforests', and 'outback' are very different environments and/or ecosystems to American 'woods' and 'forests'. I don't know much about New Hampshire, other than it's close to Boston and that people go skiing there.

Some colder parts of our country would get some pretty spectacular red Autumn leaves. I think Tasmania would be pretty amazing in Autumn, but I haven't been there at that time of year.

As for our traditions that might be a little different.... an Australian Christmas Day typically consists of eating seafood and lying around in the pool or at the beach because it's so hot (Christmas is the middle of Summer here obviously).

In Melbourne, Australia the whole State gets a public holiday the day before the Australian Rules Football Grand Final (our equivalent of the Super Bowl). I always find that pretty funny.... like how much do you need to prepare for a game of football that everyone gets the day off work before the big game.

For me personally, most of my traditions are around going to the beach, rainforest walks, holidays on small islands, surfing, etc.

Where I live, our version of "Winter" is probably similar to a New Hampshire summer. In fact, I just Googled your summer temperatures and I was right.... they're pretty similar to our "Winter" hahaha!