Autumn is my very favorite season. The brisk, chill air, the blue skies and plenty of opportunity for walks. There is no end to how often one can make soups, bake bread and fill up on sweets (preferably those that have pumpkin spice, apples and chocolate) Of course we mustn’t forget the show stopper to fall, the very reason people travel long distances to the cooling down of summer and the sweater-ing up of autumn…. it’s of course the ever changing leaves. The leaves are the finale, the goddess of the season, which means hikes, fall drives and meandering walks are the base to every proper fall tradition. So when September rounds the corner, I feel an instinctual need to fill up my schedule with that ever expanding bucket list. The desire courses through my veins with an urgency I cannot stop. I need, NO, I MUST savor every minute of the season or regret will befall me and sorrow will follow. Enter in the wide and full bucket list.
You want ideas to make the fall magical? Then please, look no further. I have an absorbent amount of ideas and loads of experience.
1. The first thing to choose is a book. Yes of course a book….well actually a few books. I personally pick 3 books just for myself to read in the months of September, October and November. I read more than one book a month, but I try to pick one each month, that are set for the season. In September I began “Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrel.” (which is a thousand pages and will take me several months to finish….but I’m loving it and savoring it) In October it was “Frankenstein” and in November it is “A Great and Terrible Beauty.” It has been spooky, sorrowful, mysterious and magical to read these stories this time of the year.
But I don’t stop there, no. We are a family here and I like to make everything communal, so naturally I have 3 read alouds as a family for the season. In September we read “The Hobbit,” in October we read “Small Spaces,” and in November we are carrying on with “On The Edge of The Dark Sea Of Darkness.” But that’s not all, there must be picture books, loads and loads of picture books….books like “The Little Old Lady who Wasn’t Scared of Anything,” or “Halloween” by Gail Gibbons. I have over thirty fall related picture books and I try to get to at least fifteen of them by the end of November.
2. Decorate. Each year I add to my fall/Halloween decorations. The dollar store has been my bestfriend for creative ideas to sparkle up this home of mine. Target and Amazon are my back up. I feel like my mission in life is to create a magical whimsy that infuses into our home, I want to create wonderful nostalgic memories.
3. Make Apple Sauce. We have a neighbor that owns an orchard of sorts. They tend to host apple sauce parties every other year, the year that the trees are fruitful and not dormant. On the years they don’t hold a get together we attend our local orchard and bring a bushel or two of apples home to make pies and apple sauce. It never creates a copious amount, but rather a taste, an evening snack, and it puts us in a warm cozy mood.
4. Rake Leaves and Jump In! Your never too old to jump in a pile of leaves right? Well….maybe, but it is fun to see kids get excited about jumping in and disappear under a swarm of colored leaves.
5. Host a Movie Night. We held a movie night in a barn this year. What fun to watch Harry Potter on a big screen surrounded by high beams and themed food. Add in some movie trivia for fun!
5, More Movies! There is a plethora of Halloween movies so we watched anything from Hocus Pocus to Cat in The Hat Halloween for my youngest daughter. Snacks are key to a successful movie night. My favorite was soft pretzels and cheese.
6. Family Picnics: We had about 3 picnics in our backyard as the leaves were changing on our sugar maple. I would whip up some chocolate chip pumpkin bread or slice up some apple and drizzle peanut butter over it. I would read one of our fall picture books aloud and munch while enjoying the nice weather and nature.
8. Create a Funny Family Video or reel. This year we decided to jump on the ghost photoshoot band wagon that pops up all over Instagram. It was a lot of fun to create together as a whole family. It’s activities like this that can really bond you as a family.
9. Create A Family Photoshoot for each Season or Holiday. I really enjoy setting a scene so I take advantage of the opportunity and make it a photoshoot. My oldest does not like to participate as a model so she takes pictures when I’m in the shot,
10. Visit a Historical Site. We checked out a mine in Scranton one day in October and a week later visited the adorable town of Jim Thorpe and took a scenic train ride. Jim Thorpe has a plethora of activities to do, whether that be, hiking, biking, white water rafting, taking tours of the nearby mine, the old jailhouse, Asa Packer Mansion or hitch a ride on the train. We also checked out a regular old “Halloweentown” in Lambertville NJ. This historic town pulls out all the fixings for decorations. We packed hot cocoa and cookies and meandered the town. My favorite place to visit in the fall is Peddlers Village for the scarecrow festival. This is a colonial looking shopping center. We usually grab a bite to eat, shop the stores and choose our favorite scarecrows.
11. Fall Walks: I live for the Fall Hikes and meanders during autumn. The weather is lovely, the colors are vibrant and the sky is a clear blue. We went up north to Lake Tobyhanna, down south by the Delaware River and the canal trail, as well as many little local trails.
12. Field Trips are The Best!! We made sure to stop by the Philly Zoo in September as well as visit the local theme park, Dorney Park, for the fall festivities.
13. Fall Drives. I made it my mission to chase the colors this year. We went up north to Lake Tobyhanna for their peak and a few weeks later searched the back roads near us for color. What a treat we got! There were many beautiful winding roads full of brilliant leaves.
14. Corn Maze and Hayride: We had to get in a hayride as well as an evening corn maze where you bring your flashlights. They even had a disc jockey in the maze. We went to two different farms for this….for the hayride we had the BEST apple dumplings, but there was virtually no pumpkins to pick, they were either green or decaying. The second was in the evening for the corn maze. You can find 13 wooden sunflowers and if you find them all you win a prize. We have yet to win.
15. Charcuterie boards have been all the rage, but I only experimented with them this fall and what fun! You can be so creative with this idea!
16. Creating a Fall Chain: Every fall I have us build a fall paper chain. With each chain we put up, we have facts we read that pertain to the season. I have gathered facts about the autumn equinox, bats, pumpkins, Rosh Hashanah, Michealmas, Samhain, Yom Kippur, Columbus, All Saints Day, Martin Luther and All Souls Day. We get to learn a lot about the season, religions and cultures that are celebrated around this time. I need to add Diwali to this list. When the fall chain grows, we decorate the windows with them like garland. By Halloween, the house looks very festive!
17. Fall Poetry Tea Time. We do tea times monthly. It is always accompanied with food, candles and books. This year our poetry tea time was fall poems, fall picture books and lots of food.
18. We were lucky enough to participate in a 2 Trunk Or Treat get togethers….one with our neighbor’s and another as a family part. This season has not only been fruitful with activity…but also with candy.
I’m almost certain I am missing something. It has been a full and wonderful fall thus far. How do you do the fall? Is your schedule this busy? For some this may seem overwhelming. I realize I tend to go a bit overboard when it comes to embracing the seasons and traditions, but it invigorates me, it’s who I am. Here is to a happy autumn and a fruitful end of the year.
Tea Time Book Club 