January Family Night Ideas and Fun Activities List
Happy New Year! January has arrived and Supermom Shuffle has prepared a January Family Night Ideas and Fun Activities List to help you get started for some fun in the month of January!
Happy New Year! January has arrived, and with it the cold winter months! January can be a long month and we’ve got all the ideas you need for some fun family time to help pass this cold winter month! I think you’ll love some of my ideas for family theme nights this month. Family time is important and I love having as much fun as I can with my little family.
Table of Contents
Importance of Family Time
A happy family is always super important to me and the value of family time cannot be overstated. Regular family nights as well as general family time are really important and strengthen your family bond. It’s a good idea to spend time together with the entire family regularly because it’s key to the development of your kids, and it boosts your general well-being also! It’s a fundamental part of offering emotional support, sharing triumphs, and navigating through challenges.
What To Expect?
What should you expect from each month’s guide for fun family night ideas? Each month will have a theme and then it will include the following ideas and activities planned around that theme!
Sections of the Guide”
- Family Dinner Conversation Starters
- Printable Conversation Starter Cards
- January Weekend Activity List
- Family Theme Night Suggestions
- Game Night Ideas
- Movie Night Ideas – January and Winter themes
- January Baking Ideas
- January Craft Ideas
- January Family Bucket List
More on each section of our guide to come!
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When To Have Family Night
Any night is fine for family night. You’ll want to do it on a night when there are no other activities planned. It is supposed to be a fun night, not something you stress about fitting into the schedules. Make the time and do the family nights regularly. It’s one of the best things in life, and you don’t want to miss it! I think Friday night is kind of fun to do them on so we don’t have to worry about homework or it being a school night. Try out some different times and see what works best for your family.
January Family Night Guide
Conversation Starters:
Use these for the dinner table or a longer car ride. Have fun with it and play along too! There are also cards to follow if you want to cut them out and put them in a jar and pick one each day!
January Conversation Starters
- What’s more fun? Ice Skating or Sledding?
- Hot Cocoa or Hot Cider?
- Which is better? Playing in the snow or watching it snow from inside the warm house?
- My most favorite snow day activity is…
- If the snowman you just built came alive, what would you want to play first with them?
- Do you like winter or summer best, and why?
- What’s your favorite winter activity?
- What do you think your teacher does over Christmas break?
- Do you like snow? Why or why not?
- What’s dangerous about the winter season?
- Would you like to live in an Igloo? Why or why not?
- What animals do you think are the happiest in winter?
- Would you like to hibernate for winter?
- What’s the thing you like most about winter?
- What’s the thing you like least about winter?
- There’s a huge snowstorm and you are in charge of delivering the mail. How would you get the job done?
Printable Cards
If you sign up for the free November guide, there are printable cards you can print out. I love to print them on cardstock, cut them out, fold them up, and put them in a jar. Then each night at dinner you can draw a conversation starter and everyone gets to answer the question each day. You can modify it for little kids or big kids as best suits your family’s needs. These would be awesome for family gatherings this month to get the conversation flowing!
Game Night Ideas:
Family Game Night is such a fun way to connect! Here’s a list of games we think are great fun for January! Some of these will require a little more work and prep than a regular board game but are much more fun for the season. Search Google/Pinterest for the idea for exact instructions!
Family Game Night Ideas
Little Guys (Age 3-6)
- Winter Themed “I Spy”
- Mitten Matching
- Snowman Bowling
- Hit the Grinch
- Winter Memory Game
- Pin the nose on Snowman
- Snowball Throw
Bigger Guys (Age 7-10)
- Winter Bingo
- Winter Minute-to-Win it Games
- Winter Tic-Tac-Toe
- Snowball Toss
- Snowman Hunt
- Snowflake I Spy
- 20 Questions Winter Edition
- Mini Ice Hockey
Bigger Guys (Age 7-10)
- Jigsaw Puzzles
- Sequence Board Game
- Monopoly
- Clue
- Spoons
- What Do You Meme, Family Edition
- Kids Against Maturity
- Taboo
- Farkle
- Yahtzee
- Scrabble
- Blokus
- Phase 10
- Uno
- Rack-O
January Weekend Activity Ideas:
There’s plenty to do in January and we all know this! But sometimes you need a way to get out of the house for a few hours and have a little fun, and these are great ideas to do that!
- Jigsaw Puzzle
- Winter Cookie Baking
- Winter Movie Marathon
- TV Show Binge Watch
- Winter Craft Day
- Clean Out Your Closet Day
- Virtual Hot Cocoa Party
- Hot Cocoa Bar
- Make a snowman
- Ice Skating
- Make Valentines to mail to loved ones
- Start Valentine’s crafts
- Go for a hike/nature walk
- Winter Bonfire
- All Day Pajama Day
- Winter in-home scavenger hunt
- Rent a cabin for a weekend getaway
- Sledding
- Fondue Night
- Winter Gingerbread Houses
- Make Bird Feeders
Family Theme Nights:
This is one of my favorite ideas and things to plan. Family theme night is so much fun. Here’s what you do:
Pick a theme and go with it for a fun family night! There’s one for each week in January plus extras!! Some of these fun night ideas are more involved than others. The sky is the limit, so go for it and have some fun. (PS – As a side effect – trying some of these new ideas might even help your child expand their diet and try new foods!)
Warm and Tropical Night
Make a tropical menu and decorate with some tropical decorations. Pretend like it’s summer outside and throw on some Hawaiian shirts and leis for good measure! Serve up some kebabs or burgers and put umbrellas in your drinks for dinner! Make something fruity and tropical for dessert too, like Dole Pineapple Whips!
Indoor Camp Out
Put up a tent in the living room and have a campout. Toast some marshmallows in the oven and make smores. Watch some movies and read some stories in the tent! You could even have a sleepover in the living room if you want!
Backward Day
Have a backward day! Have dinner for breakfast and breakfast for dinner! Start the day in jammies and then sleep in your clothes. Everyone has to walk backward for a period of time during the day. You could have dessert first as a twist too!
Valentine’s Night
Take an evening to make Valentine’s from scratch to mail to your loved ones and friends! Bake some cookies to enjoy while you prepare your cards for everyone! You could also throw in some Valentine crafts too! You could do this once a week until Valentine’s Day if you plan lots of crafts!
“Frozen”
Watch the movie together as a family. Let everyone build a snowman and igloos out of marshmallows and toothpicks. Make some blue popcorn to go with the movie as well. Serve some blue kool-aide or punch and check out the recipes on Pinterest for Frozen snack mix!
Home Drive-In Movie Night
This a super fun idea I saw on Pinterest. You can make all kinds of food you could get at the drive in and make cars out of laundry baskets! Go to this site for printable car parts for your laundry basket: https://www.thirtyhandmadedays.com/printable-car-parts-for-a-drive-in-movie/ Everyone gets their own “car” for drive in movie night. It keeps the kids still and snacks contained!
Movie Suggestions:
Need some fresh ideas for Family Movie Night? Here are some that match January and Winter Themes! Check out the movie beforehand to make sure there’s nothing to scare your kids! I haven’t seen ALL of these to confirm myself!
Younger Kids:
- Frozen
- Frozen 2
- The Mighty Ducks
- Ice Age
- Happy Feet
- March of the Penguins
- Rise of the Guardians
- Snow Dogs
- The Mighty Ducks 2
- 101 Dalmations
- The Polar Express
- Beauty and the Beast
- The Snowman
- Kipper
- Golden Winter
- Bob The Builder Snowed Under
- Bear Snores On
- Minnie’s Winter Bow Show
Older Kids: (12+)
- Cool Runnings
- Eight Below
- Miracle
- Mr. Poppers Penguins
- The Cutting Edge
- Ice Princess
- Little Women
- Groundhog Day
- The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe
- Jack Frost
- Beauty and The Beast
- Smallfoot
- Home Alone
- Togo
- Abominable
- Snow Day
Baking and Crafting Suggestions:
Here are some ideas for fun baking and crafting sessions this month! Google or Pinterest for yummy recipes and craft ideas!!
Baking:
- Chex Mix Muddy Buddies
- Hot Chocolate Cupcakes
- Hot Chocolate Cookies
- Chocolate Snowballs
- Snowball Cookies
- Cream cheese mints
- Pecan Snowballs
- Snowglobe cookies
- Oven baked donuts
- Apple Crisp
- Snowy Mountain Cookies
- Snowman Nutter Butters
- Hot cocoa pancakes
- Polar Bear Paw Cupcakes or Cookies
Craft Ideas:
- No-sew sock snowman
- Polar Bear fork paint
- Mitten garland
- Thumbprint Snowmen
- Pipe cleaner snowflakes
- Cotton ball snowman
- Tissue paper snowman or snowflakes
- Snow paint
- Grow crystal snowflakes
- Cut out paper snowflakes
- Toilet paper tube snowmen
- Yarn wrapping snowman
- Handprint penguins
- Name snowmen
- Terra cotta pot snowman
Bucket List
In your free printable guide, there is also a template for a January Family Bucket List. Decide what is on your list as a family and get to work crossing activities off the list and have some holiday fun!
Wrap-Up – January Family Night Ideas and Fun Activities List
Happy January and Happy Winter! It’s a new year and a blank slate. I just love the New Year and making resolutions and all the possibilities and motivation that come with it! All these family night ideas will keep you pretty busy for the month of January, and even beyond that! Keep this guide handy and use it month after month, year after year! I can’t wait to hear all about the fun ideas and quality time you spend with your family this month! Happy January and Happy Winter! And as always, Just Keep Shuffling!!!
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Great list Sarah! Thanks for sharing and happy New Year’s ❤️
Same to you! Thanks for reading!