Celebrate the Fall Equinox and the first day of fall with 20 simple family activities that help children notice the changing season and welcome fall together.
The first day of fall arrives on September 22 with the Fall Equinox, marking the beginning of a new season and the gradual shift toward shorter days and longer nights.
It's also a wonderful opportunity to slow down for a moment and notice what's beginning to change. Head out for apple picking, have dinner outside, find your way through a corn maze, or start a new tradition you'll bring back next year. Even something as simple as going out for a favourite fall treat can make the first day of a new season feel special.
If you're ready for cooler days, earlier evenings, and all the fun that comes with fall, here are 20 family activities to help welcome the new season.
Kick off fall with a trip to an apple orchard. Give everyone a basket or take turns carrying one as you wander between the trees looking for apples to bring home. Children can hunt for the biggest apple, the smallest one, or one that looks almost too perfect to pick.
Take your time exploring, snap a few family pictures, and enjoy whatever else the orchard has to offer. And once you get home, everyone gets to choose the first apple from the bag.
Pack dinner, lunch, or a few favourite snacks and celebrate the first day of fall with a family picnic. Head to a local park, set up in the backyard, or find another favourite outdoor spot. Bring a blanket, something for children to play with, and food everyone already enjoys.
September weather can still feel a little like summer, which is part of the fun. You get to welcome fall while squeezing in another meal outside before the really chilly days arrive.
See if your family can find its way through a corn maze without getting completely lost. Let children take turns choosing which direction everyone should go. You can vote at each turn, split into teams if the maze allows it, or appoint a new family navigator every few minutes.
Don't worry too much about finding the quickest way out. Taking the wrong turn five times may end up being the part everyone remembers.
Pick up several varieties of apples and find out which one wins the family taste test. Slice them up, number the plates, and let everyone try each one without knowing which variety it is.
Which is crunchiest? Sweetest? Most sour? Which one would everyone choose for a snack? Have each person pick a winner before revealing which apples they've been eating.
Turn dinner on or around September 22 into your family's official welcome-to-fall meal. Let everyone contribute something to the evening. One person can choose dinner, someone else can choose dessert, and children can pick the music or decide whether you're eating at the table, outside, or picnic-style on a blanket.
It doesn't have to be a traditional fall meal. Pizza works perfectly well if that's what makes everyone happy. The point is simply to make the first day of the season feel a little different from an ordinary evening.
Pile into the car or head out for a walk and let everyone choose a fall treat. Visit a bakery, doughnut shop, café, farmers' market, or another favourite spot and see what seasonal options have started appearing.
Maybe everyone chooses something apple or cinnamon flavoured. Maybe one child wants a completely non-seasonal chocolate doughnut. Bring everything home or find somewhere outside to sit and enjoy your treats together.
Ask everyone to name something they really want to do this fall. Maybe it's jumping into a huge pile of leaves, visiting a farm, going on a hayride, eating caramel apples, attending a fall fair, or having a bonfire.
Write down everyone's ideas and put the list somewhere you can see it. You don't need to finish everything before winter. It's simply a handy collection of ideas for those weekends when someone asks, "What should we do today?"
Check whether there are any early fall fairs, harvest festivals, or community events happening near you. Depending on the event, there might be rides, games, live entertainment, food, animals, demonstrations, or activities for children.
Let everyone choose one thing they really want to do while you're there. One child may head straight for the rides while another is far more interested in finding the best snack.
Celebrate the cooler weather by getting everyone outside for a bike ride. Choose a safe neighbourhood route, bike trail, or another familiar place that works for your family. You could ride to a playground, stop somewhere for a treat, or simply see where you end up.
For a little first-day-of-fall fun, let one family member choose the route there and someone else choose the way home.
Set up the tent and sleeping bags for a night of camping without having to pack the car. Eat dinner outside, bring out flashlights, look at the sky, and enjoy being outdoors after dark.
You could even make a rule that everyone has to stay outside until bedtime. And if someone decides at 10 p.m. that their own bed suddenly sounds much better than a sleeping bag, the house isn't very far away.
A hayride is one of those activities that immediately feels like fall. Look for one at a local farm, orchard, festival, or fall attraction and pile aboard together.
Children can look around as you ride and see what they can spot along the way. Depending on where you go, you might pass fields, pumpkins, farm animals, or changing trees. Pair it with apple picking or another farm activity and make an afternoon of it.
Instead of trying to get one perfect family picture, turn taking photos into a game. Give everyone a list of pictures to capture throughout the day, such as:
At the end of the day, look through everyone's photos and choose a few favourites. You might end up with a much more entertaining collection than you would from trying to get everyone to smile at the camera at the same time.
Spend an afternoon at a local farm that welcomes visitors. Children might get to see animals, explore the property, take a wagon ride, visit a farm store, or see what's being harvested.
Let children help decide what you do once you're there rather than trying to fit everything into one visit. If the farm sells produce or other food, choose something to take home as a little souvenir from your first fall outing.
Put several possible destinations into a bowl and let someone choose one without looking. Your choices might include a new playground, a hiking trail, a farm, a nearby town, a conservation area, a farmers' market, or somewhere your family has been meaning to visit.
Whatever gets picked becomes the day's adventure. The destination doesn't need to be especially "fall." Part of welcoming a new season can simply be getting out and doing something new together.
If you have access to a safe place where fires are permitted, spend an evening around a bonfire or fire pit. Bring out chairs and blankets and let everyone settle in as it gets darker.
Roast marshmallows or another favourite fire-safe treat, talk about everyone's favourite part of the summer, and ask what they're most looking forward to doing this fall. Keep children closely supervised and follow the fire-safety requirements for your location.
Instead of making breakfast at home, head out together on the first weekend of fall. Visit a favourite breakfast restaurant, diner, bakery, or café and let everyone order something they enjoy.
If there are seasonal specials, try something new or order a couple for the table so everyone can have a taste. It can be an especially easy way to mark the beginning of fall when you want to do something together without planning an entire day.
Take advantage of a comfortable September afternoon and create your own silly family competition outside. Choose a few easy events based on your children's ages, such as:
Keep score if your family enjoys competition or forget the points entirely and just see who can make everyone laugh the hardest.
Give the children a little control over the family's first fall weekend. Set a few boundaries such as how far you can travel, how much you want to spend, and how much time you have. Then let them help make the plan.
Maybe they choose a playground followed by ice cream. Maybe they want to visit a farm. Maybe their perfect fall afternoon involves riding bikes and getting pizza afterward. Their idea of the perfect way to welcome fall may be completely different from yours.
Choose one thing your family can do every year when fall arrives. It might be going out for ice cream after dinner, taking a family photo on the front steps, ordering pizza and eating outside, visiting the same orchard, or taking an evening drive.
It doesn't need to be impressive. In fact, something easy is probably more likely to happen again next September. Ask children what they think your family's first-day-of-fall tradition should be and see what they come up with.
For one Saturday or Sunday around the Fall Equinox, let everyone choose one small thing they'd like to do to welcome fall. One person might choose apple picking. Someone else might want to stop for a treat. Another might choose the music in the car, the park you visit, or what everyone has for dinner.
Set whatever limits your family needs and then see how many choices you can fit into the day. You don't need a perfectly planned itinerary. A few little things chosen by everyone can turn an ordinary September weekend into your family's own welcome-to-fall celebration.
Celebrating the Fall Equinox doesn't need to mean filling September 22 with carefully planned activities. Think of the first day of fall as an excuse to get everyone together and do something your family genuinely enjoys. Let the children plan the afternoon or start a tradition that you'll bring back when Fall Equinox rolls around again next year.
And don't worry if your plans change along the way. The trip to the orchard may end with everyone talking about the doughnuts instead of the apples. Your backyard campout may move indoors before bedtime. The children may plan an afternoon that doesn't look particularly "fall" to you at all.
The Fall Equinox marks the beginning of a new season. How your family chooses to welcome it can be entirely your own.
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