Fun ways to chill outside at the cottage this winter

By Deborah Davis

Time to earn your hot chocolate. Get outside with our wacky winter games 

Pitching soft balls

Game prep: an arsenal of snowballs

Draw two metre-wide circles in the snow. Two teams try to build the highest snow pile by tossing snowballs into their circles for an allotted time.

Hats off

Game prep: two snowmen; a couple of snowballs

Players form two teams. The play area is divided by a line to show the halfway point. Each team builds a snowman on its own side and puts a snowball on its head. Members of each team try to cross the line to grab the other team’s snowball without getting tagged. If tagged, they go to the “jail” at the half line until touched by a teammate who frees them. The game ends when a team successfully brings their opponent’s snowball over the line.

Fast frozen

Game prep: skating rink; snow pylons

If you want to pick up the pace on the lake, consider a speed-skating challenge. Make a snow pylon approximately two metres in from each corner of the rink. Form two teams. Skaters line up behind their team leader. When the referee says “Go,” the leaders skate once around the rink, staying outside the pylons. When the leader completes a lap, the teammate waiting next in line takes a turn, and so on to the last player. The team that finishes first wins. Cottagers near Portland, ON experience the real thing each January, when speedskaters from around the world gather for the International Big Rideau Lake Speedskating Marathon. Afterwards, families are invited to lace up and try out the one-kilometre oval track.

The game of the name

Game prep: fresh snow; coordination

Use steps or hops to spell out each letter of your name in fresh snow. Jump from letter to letter. For a variation, one person creates a pattern with footprints. The other players follow, stepping carefully to leave only one set of tracks in the snow.

Freeze-thaw cycle

Game prep: extra scarves

This is a frosty variation of Statue Tag. One person is the Freezer and a couple of people are Melters. The Freezer and Melters wear different-coloured scarves around their waists so they can be identified. When you are touched by the Freezer, you become a snowman and freeze in place until a Melter touches you. Melters cannot be frozen; instead, they try to thaw the snowmen as quickly as possible so everyone stays warm.

Winter driving

Game prep: frozen lake; tennis balls; golf clubs

Why head south when you can play the links on the lake? For five years, Joey Baratto has turned the frozen surface outside his cottage into a golf course. Last winter, 38 duffers joined him at his arctic Augusta on Lake Muskoka for a chance to win the tourney’s white “Masters” jacket.

Northern rules on this quirky course opt for the use of tennis balls (golf balls vanish in the snow) and any three clubs. In groups of four, players age seven to 60 begin by teeing off from Baratto’s dock onto the frozen fairway. Golfers go for the green – a six-metre putting surface marked with green colouring. The “hole” is a 0.5-metre hoop that encircles a flag. With six holes ranging from about 50 to 120 yards, the course takes between one and 11⁄2 hours to finish. When the white-jacket ceremony wraps up mid-afternoon, family and friends swing ’round to the barbecue and enjoy cocktails on ice.

Tire rotation

Game prep: golf clubs or hockey sticks; tennis balls or snowballs; tire swing

Putters looking for a different spin might like this version of Snow Golf played at the Grand Bend Winter Carnival. Players shoot a tennis ball through a tire mounted on posts on the fairway at each of the course’s nine holes. Golfers play with one club and keep track of their swings with a score card. (Golfing not your game? Throw snowballs through a tire instead.) If a small-scale golf course is more to your liking, consider a mini-putt. Clear a flat surface on the ice. When designing the course, go crazy. Use snow, ice, cans, wood, branches, and rocks to create obstacles, ramps, and tunnels. Mark the “hole” with food colouring. Players hit the golf balls with hockey sticks. The player who requires the least number of strokes to get the ball in the hole wins.

I am a rock

Game prep: ice rink; inner tube

Want to really throw yourself into the game? Body curling is the new wave at winter carnivals. Each team of four curls its player down the ice on an inner tube. The tube that travels the farthest wins.

Designer snow house

Game prep: lots of different-sized containers

Need a cure for cabin fever? Head outside and create a snow shelter. When it comes to possibilities, igloos are just the tip of the iceberg. Get your kids to help design castles and snow forts using pails, recycling boxes, and other containers to shape the snow. Decorate with flags and food colouring for the finishing touches.

Foxy moxie

Game prep:fresh snow; fast feet

This traditional game is a winter favourite. Players use footprints to create a winding track on fresh snow. Two players are “foxes” and chase the “geese” around the track. When tagged by a “fox” the goose switches roles with it. Make a “den,” or safe zone, where only one player at a time can enter.

Toilet toss

Game prep: discarded toilet or bucket; plunger

Got an old biffy in your back 40? Here’s an outrageous curling creation from the townsfolk of Alma, Ont. Their annual Plunger Plop revamps the sport by using a toilet as the house and plungers instead of stones. Twelve curling sheets are created on an outside rink and a toilet is set at both ends of each. With 48 teams, players try to toss their plungers into the toilets to score 10 points. Circles drawn in spray paint around the “house” allow scores of one and two points. To adapt the Plunger Plop for the cottage, use a single toilet or bucket. Plungers scarce? Players can line up to toss snowballs. Use food colouring and water to mark the “house.” If you prefer to aim higher, use snow to mark a bull’s eye on the side of a tree. Take turns throwing at the target.

Roll play

Game prep:packing snow

Participants start at the top of the hill with a small snowball. They roll the snowball down the hill and back up again, or to a designated line and back. Snowballs are then judged in a variety of categories, including largest, roundest, oddest shaped, or fastest down the hill.

Mush, Dad, mush

Game prep: toboggan; obstacle course

Dog tired? Give your best friend a break and become your own dogteam. Players pull team members on a toboggan through an obstacle course. Build your obstacle course using snow or other materials on hand and award prizes for speed and agility. If your family is hounding you for the real thing, check out one of the many dogsledding operations in cottage country. 

Published in the Winter 2004 issue of Cottage Life magazine.

Copyright © 2004 by Cottage Life. All rights reserved. Reproduction of any article, photograph, or artwork, for other than personal use, in whole or in part, without the written permission of the publisher is strictly forbidden.