I’m in a festive mood. The leaves are changing, the weather is crisp, and I have been drinking pumpkin spice protein coffee nearly every morning for the past two weeks. 

If you’re having trouble getting into an autumnal spirit, try some of these fall activities!

1. Read

2. Knit

3. Craft

4. Practice Gratitude

5. Host a Dinner Party

6. Go to a Fall Festival

7. Indulge in Seasonal Treats

8. Watch Your Favorite Spooky Movies

9. Clean Out Your Closet and Donate

10. Bake Something and Share It

Read

While reading isn’t a fall-only activity, it’s great for the colder months. I love bundling up in a soft blanket on the couch and reading a book or magazine.

If you’re a Kindle reader, you can take your coziness to the next level with a page turner and mount. You won't even have to lift a finger to turn the page.

There are also a lot of fall-themed books out there, so do a quick search for books in the genres that you like that take place in the fall. 

Knit

I knit year-round (the best time to make warm knitwear is before you need it!), but autumn is the prime time to break out my needles. Because it’s getting dark out earlier, I need indoor activities to keep me occupied, and sometimes I don’t feel like reading or watching a movie. 

Lately, I’ve really enjoyed knitting while listening to audio books or podcasts. Most books have an audiobook version nowadays, so if there’s something you’ve been wanting to read, consider listening to it while you work with your hands.

Especially after you’ve been knitting for a while, it can become a bit boring (unless you’re doing a complicated pattern. Then you’d better pay attention!). Audiobooks make getting through thousands of knit stitches much nicer.

If you’re a beginner knitter, I highly recommend the Sheep & Stitch YouTube channel for helpful tutorials. It’s how I learned to knit, and it taught me everything I needed to know.

Craft

Fall crafts are another fun way to use your creativity. My mom is the big crafter in our family, and she is always coming up with fun holiday-themed crafts. Recently, we made lanterns out of tin cans and decorated them with little fall items like miniature pine cones and pumpkins. 

While there are a ton of little crafty items available at craft stores, there are also lots of things you can get for free from your yard. Gather leaves, acorns, or pine needles for fun, sustainable, and low-cost crafts!

Practice Gratitude

While Thanksgiving is the prime time for practicing gratitude, it’s something that we should be doing every day. It’s really good for you and can actually help lessen depression. It makes you feel less stressed, and people who practice gratitude regularly are more optimistic than people who don’t, according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness. 

Practicing gratitude can look like writing down a few things you are grateful for each morning or sharing one thing you are grateful for with your family at the dinner table. My best friend and I text each other every morning with one thing we are grateful for. 

Host a Dinner Party

Hosting dinner parties is one of my favorite activities—any time of year! Though I particularly enjoy fall dinner parties because they are so cozy. 

When I was a kid, my parents hosted neighborhood chili parties. I can’t remember the time of year, but I do remember that they had a string of chili-pepper-shaped lights that they strung from the porch, and families from around the neighborhood would bring chili to share. They were lively, fun events. 

While I don’t host chili parties now, I do enjoy having people over for dinner. It feels nice to cook a meal for loved ones or new friends. Connecting over food is organic and leads to great conversations. 

Go to a Fall Festival

No matter where you live, you’re likely to find a myriad of fall festivals and events. It’s the perfect time of year to start shopping for Christmas, so there are many vendor events this time of year. 

Local farms often offer apple picking, pumpkin patches, or corn mazes in autumn as well. These are fun events for the entire family and will lead to lots of great memories. 

Indulge in Seasonal Treats

The flavors are one of my favorite parts of fall! I polled you all about this a few newsletters back, and it was a three-way tie between pumpkin, apple, and salted caramel for the favorite fall flavor. All three are wonderful, and I plan to indulge in each one. 

Coffee shops, cafes, and restaurants always have delicious fall flavors, and while I may be able to get a pumpkin spice latte from Joe Beans any time of year, it tastes better when it’s cold outside and the leaves are changing. 

Watch Your Favorite Spooky Movies

We don’t have any movies that we watch every year, but we are currently rewatching the Harry Potter movies and recently watched through all of the Psych halloween specials. This has been a really fun way to spend the evening with my husband, and watching these things together, especially the Harry Potter movies, is so nostalgic for us. 

These aren’t particularly spooky movies, but if you prefer something a little more out there, have at it. Now’s the time!

Clean Out Your Closet and Donate

Changes in season are a good time to go through your clothes to see what you want to wear for another year and what you’re willing to pass along. I go through my closet every few months to see if there is something I can donate. Maybe your body or style has changed since last fall—that’s perfectly fine, and the good news is that if your clothes are in good shape, someone else is going to be able to wear and enjoy them!

Instead of donating them to a big box thrift store, see if there are any locally owned thrift stores or nonprofit organizations in your area that accept clothing donations. We live in an area with an abundance of nonprofit organizations, so there is always a place to donate gently used clothing that ensures it gets to people who need it. 

Bake Something and Share It

I haven’t baked anything yet this fall, but these pumpkin cheesecake cookies from Chelsweets are on my to-bake list. It’s just me and my husband at home, so if I make an entire recipe, it’s far too much for the two of us (Hubs will debate me on this!). Usually, we’ll pack them up and take some over to our elderly neighbor or share them with our in-laws. 

Not only do you get to have fun baking, but you also get to connect with others and make them smile. (Who doesn’t love baked goods?)

What do you think of these ideas for fall activities? Is there anything else you’d add to the list? Share your ideas with me in the comments.