Though snow days present all sorts of challenges and downers, such as feeling cold all the time and shoveling your driveway and sidewalks, but there are also many positive things about the snow. Winter always gets a bad reputation, and while I certainly am not the biggest fan of the season, I love snow. These are some of the best parts of the days when you actually get more than just a dusting.
1. Snow ball fights
This only works with multiple people, so you may want to invite people over for this! This doesn't usually last long before everyone's exhausted, soaked, and cold and you can go to number three on this list.
2. Sledding
While other people aren't required, they would make this more enjoyable. The only requirements are a hill and some sort of flat-bottomed object you can fit on. I've seen this done with a recycling tub, get creative if you don't have a sled itself, or borrow one. With larger hills, people are more likely to take turns on sleds, wanting to rest after a long uphill trek.
3. Hot Chocolate
This becomes a staple, in a new food group reserved for snowy days alongside soup, crackers and fresh cookies. This, along with numbers five and eleven on this list share the common element of heat: warming up after fun in the snow is one of the most luxuriating sensations in the world.
4. School is cancelled
This isn't always the case, but when it is, it's a life-saver. Especially when you find out right after you wake up, ready to get ready. Once you read that email or news report, you flop over for another two hours of rest. This isn't so fun when you end up arriving at school wondering where everyone is, but it does make for a great story!
5. Fires in the fireplace
One of the best sensations in the world is warming up by the fireplace after being outside in the snow, as previously stated, not to mention I just love watching the fire in the fireplace.
6. Hugs
This is the time to snuggle with your loved ones, whether that means demanding your big brothers hug you or staying warm on the couch with a significant other. Even the most standoffish people can't help but be drawn together when there's snow.
7. Time
You now have extra time to do that homework you still haven't done, catch up on your favorite TV show, finish that book you were so hooked on, call that Uncle to finally thank him for your birthday present a few months ago, or just get some extra shut-eye that you can't usually get.
8. The scenery
Usually in winter, everything is grey. The bare, skeletal trees, the sky, even the houses which seem bright and cheery in spring seem dreary in winter. Snow changes everything from white to gray overnight, so the contrast makes the beauty of it even more stunning.
9. Stepping on fresh snow (Aka ruining said scenery)
Seeing the snow perfectly pristine is all good and dandy, but there's nothing quite like being the first person to walk across a yard of untouched snow, especially when snow plows haven't yet gotten to your street.
10. You see people
One thing I don't like about winter is that people never want to go outside, so the few times you do there's no one. It's a ghost town. But once it snows, suddenly everyone braves the cold, whether to shovel or kids out making snowmen. My neighbors like to talk and say hello, but the one thing that we all end up doing together as a community is shovel the snow. People help with others' driveways, the sidewalks, and even the road itself if the plows haven't come through. Snow just brings people outside and together.
11. Hot baths and showers
The third time this is stated, but warming up after being in snow is a glorious feeling. Ironic that one of the best things about the snow is warming up from it.
