How to romanticize fall as a family

With the fall season upon us, I thought it would be fun to share with you a list of 20 of the ultimate ways to romanticize fall together as a family. 

What does romanticizing mean and how do you do it?

Romanticizing refers to celebrating and appreciating the simple everyday moments in your life. It’s about slowing down and finding ways to turn the ordinary moments throughout our days into something special.

For example, rather than simply pour yourself your usual cup of coffee in the morning, you could take some time and prepare yourself a cafe inspired version in your favourite mug.

How can you romanticize fall as a family?

When it comes to romanticizing the seasons, the idea is to fully appreciate, incorporate and celebrate all that the current season has to offer.

Some simple ways to do this would be to incorporate seasonal foods, scents, colors and natural elements wherever you see fit. Think fall scented candles/essential oils, pumpkin and apple treats and DIY decor made from leaves, pumpkins and straw. 

Ultimately its about celebrating and enjoying what this season has to offer as a family and having fun trying something new together. 

Here are some ideas to inspire you. 

20 Ways to romanticize fall as a family

• Try making a pumpkin spice latte or pumpkin hot chocolate in the morning and watch some old autumnal cartoons together like Scooby-do or Casper with the windows open to let in the cool crisp morning air. 

• Don’t wait for thanksgiving to count your blessings, try making it a new habit that you share one thing you’re grateful for from that day with your family at dinner time. 

• Let your kids enjoy their halloween costumes (or spend a day making them together) even more by having dress up days at home throughout the season. (its even more fun when the whole family gets involved.) 

• Visit a pumpkin patch, go on the hayride, try out the corn maze together, pick out your families pumpkins and listen to an autumnal playlist together as you carve or paint your pumpkins.

• Bundle up in some cozy sweaters, pack a picnic and some fall books for everyone and head out for a family hike. Pick a spot to picnic in the beautiful fall scenery, then use your blanket to create an outdoor blanket fort for the children to play in while everyone enjoys some reading time.
  
• Visit an apple orchard, bring home some apple cider and fresh apples to bake your favourite apple treat or try making some candy apples. 

• Dress in your most autumnal colours and take some candid photos or schedule a fall family photoshoot, jumping in the leaves, having a leaf fight, etc.

• Host a bonfire with friends and family, enjoy some homemade chili by the fire, make s’mores, drink apple cider and have a flannel dress code. Provide some extra blankets and hay bales as seats for guests. 

• Go for a family drive through your area to take in the beautiful fall foliage and the fun seasonal decor. You can even turn it into a scavenger like this one I made for our children.
  
  
• Try some fun family photoshoots like everyone dressing up as a character from a movie/show/book and posing in character or grab some white sheets and pose as a family of ghosts in the woods, have fun with it and use your imagination. 
  
  Sign up to do an escape room together as a family or with some friends if your children aren’t old enough yet. 

• Pick out or thrift some old clothes to make a scarecrow together as part of your families fall decor.

• Set up a blanket fort in front of your tv, get in your pjs and enjoy some fall treats and candy while you watch a fall or halloween family movie together.

• If you want to be extra, pick your favourite autumnal film/show/book and create a themed party for it, decorations, dinner, dessert, drinks, atmospheric background music and attire all set to that theme. Harry potter anyone?

• Gather together by candlelight and read aloud some autumnal or spooky books to your family. If you pick a chapter book, it can become a new evening routine you share. 

• Try out some new and unique halloween/fall goodies like your own “ghost marshmallows”, hard candies or healthy homemade gummies.
• Head to your local fall festival. For our family, that means heading to Upper Canada Village for their annual Pumpkinferno event.
  
  
• For those old enough, try joining or starting a book club. Alternatively you can find tonnes of books listed online to use as a personal reading challenge or to help you pick out some new books to try

• Get bundled up, pack some blankets and head to a drive-in movie together. If you don’t live close to a drive-in, try to recreate the experience at home. You can help your children create cars out of cardboard and enjoy your favourite movie snacks, with all the lights dimmed.
  
  
• Finally, after all that fun and adventure, try out a relaxing evening together, also known as “Hygge”, by eating dinner by candlelight together, with some relaxing ambience background music. (You can find these on Youtube) Share some fun childhood memories with your children, play board games, eat home baked sweets, wear comfy loungewear and cozy socks and be sure to keep your lighting warm and dim, using just your lamps, candles and/or fairy lights for the evening.

I hope you’ve found some inspiration in this list of ways to romanticize fall as a family and that you make sure to take pictures to help savor the memories you’ll create together in the years to come. 

I’d love to hear about your families’ favourite ways to enjoy the fall or if you’ve tried out any of our suggestions on the list and how it went. 

So grateful to have you here,

Heather