Snow Day Survival Kit

If you experience snow days every winter, a snow day survival kit is a great way to be prepared and make a snowy day home from school fun!

I may not have much (any?) good shopping where I live and there may not be many super great restaurants, but one thing we have plenty of is SNOW! I know I’ve probably mentioned it a couple million times, but I’m going to mention it again: I live in the 3rd snowiest city in the United States.

This winter isn’t looking so bad, only 87 inches so far (last year at this time we’d already gotten 140 or so!). Still, we have already had one snow day, and I’m pretty sure that there will be a few more, so I decided to make a few snow day survival kits for our friends. I thought it would be a great gift idea and something that is pretty easy to make, even on a tight budget.

(Sshhh. Don’t tell my girls, but I may or may not have one hidden away for them when the next snow day comes.)

They were super simple to make, and best of all, not very expensive.

How to Make a Snow Day Survival Kit

1. Find a container or basket to put your snow day activities in

I bought the cute blue tubs from Dollar Tree. These exact ones are no longer available at the dollar store, but you can find similar blue storage tubs on Amazon. I liked the blue because it fit in with the winter theme, but any cute container will work!

The Dollar Tree usually has the perfect gift basket container, you just have to go in and look around.

2. Line the container with “snow”

 In keeping with the snow day theme, it’s super cute to add some snow to your basket. I filled up the tubs with some quilt batting to look like snow before I added a few fun goodies.

3. Fill the container with fun snow day activities

Now for the fun part! Think of some fun snow day activities and treats you know your kids will love. If you are putting together a kit for friends or neighbors, there are plenty of affordable gift ideas to add without breaking the bank. You can spend a little or a lot on these baskets, but no matter how much you spend, they will definitely keep kids busy when the school day is cancelled for snow or cold weather! Parents will also appreciate the quiet time it gives them during the day.

We put in our favorite hot chocolate mix: Stephens Candycane Cocoa. What’s a snow day without a good cup of hot cocoa (or three)?

Hot cocoa requires marshmallows. I found a fun can of mini marshmallows that was just perfect: Kraft Mallow Bits (Incidentally, Kraft puts them in the same kind of container as they do their Parmesan cheese, and my oldest daughter was wondering why I included Parmesan cheese in a snow day survival kit.)

I put in a pair of fuzzy socks for each kid. I found some at WalMart that were blue and fuzzy with snowflakes on them. Perfect!

Finally, I included a movie. My youngest daughter and I dug around the $5 movie bins and found a few good ones:

Mr. Popper’s Penguins, Happy Feet, and Happy Feet Two (many of these are actually even cheaper on Amazon, which are my affiliate links).

Other ideas to add to your snow day survival kit:

• Hot cocoa mix
• Peppermint tea
• Ceramic mugs to hold hot beverages
• Chocolate spoons
• Chocolate syrup
• Recipe for sugar cookies
• Snowflake cookie cutter
• Cookie ingredients in a small mason jar
• A variety of snacks (nothing refrigerated)
• A cozy blanket
• Fuzzy socks
• Video games
• Books to read
• Card games

4. Wrap your container up in cellophane and add some extra decoration

After wrapping the whole thing in cellophane, I tied it with a ribbon decorated with snowflakes. I then topped it off with a super cute little wooden decoration that I found at WalMart for under a dollar.

These cute snow-themed wooden ornaments would also work well.

Even if you don’t plan on having a lot of snow days, these are fun to put together and give away! You can even pretend to have a snow day if you have a weekend snow storm that keeps you from leaving the house easily.

Happy Snow Days this winter! 

More things to do on your snow day:

• Take photos in the snow using these tips for great snow photos
• Learn about Danish hygge and how to practice it in the winter.
• Print out this Let it Snow printable to decorate your house.

This post may contain affiliate links, for more information, please see my disclosure.