Chill Pastimes for the Snowbound

Steven Hansen
Jan 24
3 min read

Updated: Jan 24

Has the big winter storm thrown a snowball at your fun weekend plans? Well, here are 10 other things you can do instead of shoveling out the driveway. You’re not going anywhere anyway, so chill out.

1. Solve the Very First Crossword Puzzle

Created in 1913 by cruciverbalist Arthur Wynn, the original word game kicked off a diversion – some even say an addiction – that really caught on. In the U.S. alone, 68 million people work a crossword puzzle every day. See if you can solve it!

2. When God Gives You Snow, Make Candy

If you live anywhere that fresh snow has fallen – or soon will – you can make make a batch of maple syrup taffy, otherwise known as “sugar on snow”! This is a traditional winter treat in Maine, Vermont and Canada.

3. Blow Ice Bubbles

Choose a cold day with no breeze. Somewhere between 10 to −30 °F — the colder the better. First, add a few drops of glycerin or corn syrup to your regular bubble solution and chill it in the fridge to get it cold (not frozen). Then go outside and blow bubbles over a textured surface, such as a shrub or a low, brick wall. This will help catch the bubbles as they freeze and fall. Plan to blow them early in the morning or late in the afternoon, after the sun has gone down.

4. Draw a Bicycle (we dare you!)

Think you can you draw a bicycle from memory? Everyone knows what a bike looks like, but most people have a hard time drawing it correctly from memory on paper. According to Wired magazine, Italian designer Gianluca Gimini has asked more than 500 people to do exactly this. “Of the 370 people who really tried, only about 25 percent managed to accurately sketch a bike.” Give it a try, grab some paper and a pencil and see if you can draw a bicycle.

Afterwards, check out Gimini’s hilarious 3D renderings of some of the attempted bicycle drawings he’s collected from people.

5. Listen to the World’s Weirdest Radio Station

Have fun tuning in to some of the nearly 70,000 unedited audio recordings of everyday life around the world on RADIO APOREE. This is 'reality radio' at its finest.

Users can search the sound recordings by location using a map or by type of sound (forest, children, street noise, etc.), filter their results by date or length of recording, or even upload sound recordings of their own.

6. Solve a Jigsaw Puzzle of Your Family

Create and solve an online jigsaw puzzle from your own snow-day pictures. Simply upload a photo, select the number and style of the puzzle pieces, and then connect the scattered pieces on-screen. You can also save the puzzle and share it with other family members to solve or select from stock photos already uploaded. It’s all free!

7. Warm Up with Spicy Hot Chocolate

Mix up a cup of spicy Mexican Hot Chocolate! Coloradan mom Sarah Jenkins’s recipe contains bittersweet chocolate, cloves, vanilla, cinnamon, cayenne pepper – and it’s super easy to make.

8. Create A Hyggekrog

It’s how the Danes cozy-up indoors. All you need is a hot drink, some thick socks, a huge, engrossing book -- like Eliot’s massive “Middlemarch” that you’ve always meant to read, or a weird, little tale that nobody’s ever heard of, like Trevor’s “The Boarding-House,” -- and maybe a cat or two.

9. Watch Retro TV

This funky free site lets you relive the past by channel surfing sitcoms, soaps, sportscasts, news, movies, kids shows, cartoons, game shows, and talk shows from the 1950s to the 2000s. Once there, select any of the six vintage-looking television sets to start the experience. Knobs and buttons control the channel selections, volume, picture glow and other cool effects.