The air is getting crisp here in Vermont, the kids are back in school, and I may have sipped my first pumpkin spice latte of the season. Yes, I’m that girl. While fall technically doesn’t start for a few more weeks, I embrace the start of school as a pivot in time into the fall season. So today, I bring you my ultimate brain dump of fall bucket list ideas. Everything from family adventures to cozy experiences at home, decor ideas, and even some home maintenance perfect for the season.
I’m also including a free fall bucket list printable at the bottom of this post. Scroll to the end and download your own fall bucket list sheet, fill it out, and hang on the fridge as a reminder of the things you choose to include on your personal list.
How To Use A Fall Bucket List
Fall bucket lists are fun “potentially do” lists. They are not a hard, rigid must-do list. Fill your list with the ideas that light you up. Or the things you say you’ll always do each fall, but never get to them.
When you have an unexpected free Saturday, consult the list and choose an item or two to check off. Don’t treat it like something you HAVE to do or SHOULD do. Then it’s no fun. Or at least less fun.
Adventures
From adventures for the whole family to more adult-friendly date nights (or days), fall is a great time to get out there and explore. For some areas, I’m looking at you Southern regions, it’s the best time to get outside. I’m jonesing this season for fall hikes (we live in Vermont, so is there really a better time for hiking?!) in the crisp air filled with vibrant foliage and maybe some corn mazes.
- Go apple picking or visit an apple orchard
- Visit a pumpkin patch
- Tour a microbrewery
- Visit a vineyard for a wine tasting
- Golf at a small course nestled in the woods
- Explore a haunted house
- Test your skills in a corn maze
- Go antiquing or thrifting for fall home decor and cozy sweaters
- Take a fall foliage or scenic drive
- Or go further with a fall road trip
- Go leaf peeping on a local trail
- Participate in a small-town fall festival
- Do a turkey-trot or fun run (I’m wishing the Vermont Flannel 5K would come back)
- Go to an outdoor free concert
- Take a bike ride on a rail trail or a new-to-you area
- Go fishing (always tops on Colby’s list)
- Picnic at a local park or a state park you’ve always wanted to visit
- Attend a football game…bonus points for tailgating
- Peruse root vegetables at a farmer’s market
- Take a hay ride
- Go on a simple nature walk and notice how the season is changing
- Visit a drive-in movie theater (I love the earlier start times as the days grow shorter in the fall)
- Book a weekend away at a cozy cabin
- Visit a local bookstore and pick out the perfect fall read
- Go camping
- Find a local ghost or history tour
- Explore an art gallery
- Shop at a fall craft fair
- Volunteer at a local food pantry
- Collect items to donate to a food pantry
- Try horseback riding through the countryside
- Kayak or canoe on a lake, soaking in the colorful reflections
- Tour a historic town
- Experience a fall agricultural fair
- Try geocaching
- Visit a sunflower field and pick a bouquet
- Deliver baked goods or a fall dish to neighbors
Experiences At Home
You don’t have to go far or be super adventurous with your autumn bucket list. You can have just as much fun celebrating your favorite season and cooler weather at home. Here are some fall bucket list ideas for the homebody.
- Carve pumpkins
- Pumpkin picking from your garden
- Rake up leaf piles for jumping into
- Roast marshmallows (bonus if you create the ultimate marshmallow roasting basket with fancy marshmallow or chocolate options)
- Tell ghost stories around a campfire
- Watch a fall or Halloween movie (Hocus Pocus, anyone?)
- Have a Harry Potter movie marathon
- Bonus points if you add themed snacks to your movie night
- Create a thankful tree with notes of gratitude
- Host a Halloween party
- Read fall or Halloween books (see our list of favorite Halloween reads for kids)
- Watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade
- Embrace harvest season with your kitchen garden and have a canning day
- Break out a fall puzzle
- Have a nature scavenger hunt in your backyard or local park
- Pick a fall book for a family read aloud
- Create a gratitude jar
- Play flashlight tag at night with the kids
- Celebrate the autumn equinox at home in a way you like to connect with nature
- Make a bucket list of Halloween movies or scary movies to watch together
- Host a neighborhood pumpkin carving contest
- Watch Gilmore Girls (or another cozy show)
- Take family photos at home
- Plant a fall garden
- Have a family game night
- Build a fall-themed Lego set
- Host a neighborhood potluck
- Look at the stars on a clear night
- Host a friendsgiving night
- Plant fall bulbs for spring blooms
- Build a blanket fort with the kids
- Have a backyard campout and tell spooky-ish stories
- Go trick-or-treating or trunk-or-treating
- Have a fall pajama day with movies and popcorn
- Host a first day of fall potluck
- Take photos playing in the leaves
- Organize a neighborhood touch football game (bonus if you bestow a Geller Cup to the winners)
- Set up a hot chocolate bar with fall-themed toppings
- Learn a new card game
- Have a “no electricity” night with flashlights and candles
Baking And Cooking Ideas
Some of our favorite fall activities revolve around the kitchen so why not give baking and cooking it’s own category?! Summer is all about grilling and fresh, seasonal veggies. So when fall rolls around, it’s the perfect time for more seasonal fare and heartier goods. From all things pumpkin spice to heartier root vegetables and apple snacks and treats.
- Bake an apple pie (or a pumpkin pie)
- Roast pumpkin seeds
- Trade zucchini bread in for pumpkin bread (or even beer bread)
- Try crafting your own PSL (pumpkin spice latte) or apple crisp macchiato (my favorite)
- Or make a fancy syrup for your coffee
- Sip warm apple cider…bonus…add a cinnamon stick
- Make caramel apples and try not to chip a tooth
- Or make your own caramel sauce and dip apple slices into it (yum!)
- Make applesauce (my favorite is with early, tart McIntosh apples)
- Experiment with new-to-you fall teas (a new favorite is hot cinnamon spice tea…it tastes like red hot candies)
- Mix up some trail mix or Chex mix
- Make chili, like the kind that simmers all day and pairs well with cornbread
- Try a new baked treat recipe
- Cook fall soups
- Make a charcuterie board or snack board for dinner
- Try a fall beer, cocktail, or other seasonal adult beverages
- Bake Halloween or fall-themed sugar cookies
- Make apple butter in a slow cooker and spread it on toast for breakfast
- Mix up fall harvest popcorn (popcorn with mix-ins like candy corn, peanut M&Ms, caramel, etc.)
- Pumpkin pancakes or waffles for breakfast
- Make YOUR favorite seasonal treat
Adding Coziness At Home
Fall is the ultimate time to up the cozy factor at home. It’s the time of year that I crave my fall mom-iform (leggings with a flannel shirt), sipping fall teas, snuggling with a cozy blanket and a good book, or slipping into my favorite fuzzy slippers. Sometimes it’s the little things that make home feel cozier in the fall. Hashtag hygge.
- Decorate your home for fall (simple updates or go nuts)
- Break out everyone’s favorite fuzzy, cozy blanket
- Thrift some cozy sweaters, the kind they don’t make anymore, and put them front and center in your closet
- Add some fall colors to your decor
- Upgrade to the comfiest fuzziest slippers (LL Bean’s Wicked Good Moccasins have ruined all other slippers for me)
- Photograph or journal about how the leaves change
- Make a fall playlist
- Create a signature fall scent for your diffuser (current fave: black spruce, orange, cinnamon)
- Burn that heavenly scented, beautiful fall candle you’ve been “saving”
- Cultivate a fall book stack; pull cozy fall reads from your shelves or the local library and stack them on your nightstand
- Add an extra-thick blanket or family heirloom quilt to your bed
- Add a thrifted lamp to a corner for less reliance on harsh overhead lighting and more ambiance
- Work on a gratitude journal
- Start a one line journal
- Add mums and pumpkins to your porch
- Bring out your fall mug (or find a new one)
- Add pumpkins and gourds to your table
- Arrange fall flowers for your island or dining table
- Throw the flannel sheets on the beds
- Set up a cozy reading nook with extra pillows and blankets
- Add ambiance with flameless candles
- Write letters or notes for mailing to family members
- Decorate windows with fall crafts (leaf rubbings, pressed leaves, garlands, etc.)
- Trick out a coffee/tea station with seasonal flavors
Get Crafty
Sewing and crocheting often become a fall bucket list item for me. Can’t explain it. But crafts are such fun things to embrace in the fall months. Knitting up cozy hats for the upcoming cooler months or crafting seasonal decor for your home.
- Make a fall wreath using natural materials (or maybe a burlap wreath)
- Make your own Halloween costume (I make our family’s costumes every year…best advice…start now so you’re not frantically sewing on October 30th)
- Create a fall scrapbook with the kids
- Make a fall garland to hang on the mantle
- Paint pumpkins
- Sew a simple fall table runner
- Color in a fall coloring book (I just picked up this one!)
- Experiment with acorn and pinecone crafts
- Make a bird feeder
- Collect colorful leaves for pressing
- Make handprint turkeys
- Craft a seasonal table centerpiece
- Create a pumpkin vase or centerpiece
- Arrange a fall terrarium
- Make leaf rubbings
- Shape salt dough ornaments like leaves or pumpkins
- Sew plaid or fall-themed napkins
- Make a scarecrow for the yard
- Mold mini pumpkins out of air clay
- Make fall-colored friendship bracelets
- Create a fall-themed felt garland
- Punch tin-can lanterns
- Experiment with watercolor painting of fall leaves or trees
House Maintenance
While less “fun” per se, fall is the perfect time to tackle some of those nagging home maintenance or repair projects. With the arrival of fall, winter is imminent in our area, and that first freeze sneaks up on us, leaving many of these “we’ll do it in the fall” tasks stuck until spring.
- Put the garden to bed, tucking away structures and layering on some mulch to protect the soil
- Break out the storm windows and repair any damaged windows
- Inspect the roof and make any necessary repairs before winter
- Clean the patio furniture, terracotta pots, or any other outdoor summer items
- Rake leaves AND jump in them
- Clean gutters and downspouts
- Drain and store garden hoses
- Turn off outdoor water spigots
- Clean plant pots and seed trays
- Schedule a furnace inspection and tune-up
- Clean all the vents, registers, and baseboards
- Deeply scrub the entry floors
Free Printable Fall Bucket List
So now it’s your turn! Below is the pdf file for a free printable bucket list. Essentially, a fall-themed blank printable list for you to fill out. Pull some of your favorite ideas from above, bring out the cozy blankets, snuggle up with your family, and write out your favorite things. Post it somewhere you’ll see it, like on the refrigerator, so when you’re looking for fun, fall activity ideas for an empty weekend, options abound.
In the meantime, I’ll be filling out my own bucket list of fun fall activities (and a few essential house maintenance tasks because I am that person).
Here’s to pumpkin patches, family fun, cute fall decor, new recipes, and lots of fun activities this season. I’m always looking to make every day around our home just a little bit more magical, and this is one of my favorite ways to kick off fall.
Pssst….So tell me, what is your favorite fall activity? Any outdoor activities that I missed? Or some cozy crafts?
