There’s nothing more relaxing and fun than spending time with family. After a long day at work, you can’t wait to reach the doorsteps and be greeted by loved ones who are just as excited to welcome you home. And then you look forward to having an intimate dinner where you’ll relish good food and enjoy each other’s company.
But weekends are probably your highlight. What makes them so special is that you get to engage in wonderful activities with your family, like playing catch or hosting a barbecue party in your backyard. There’s another fantastic idea you can consider for more outdoor fun: doing family-friendly activities around a fire pit. If you don’t have a fire pit yet, you can install a good one from a great company, like Max Fire Pits.
Be it a beautiful summer night or a breezy autumn day filled with a woodsy and fresh scent, gathering around a blazing bed of coal is a lovely and memorable way to spend weekends with your favorite people. Continue reading to discover family-friendly activities you can do around a fire pit.
1. Toasting Marshmallows
A fire pit experience will never be complete without toasting some marshmallows and making S’mores with your kids. After all, who could ever say no to delicious, sweet treats? When your kids are all grown up, they’ll look back on wonderful childhood memories and remember how fun it was to sit around the fire pit and toast their own mallows while laughing together.
To level up the experience, you can teach your kids to make their own S’mores. They can toast their mallows however they like, whether burnt or golden brown. All you need are Graham crackers, marshmallows, and any bar of chocolate candies. Besides, S’mores are pretty easy to make. It’s just like how you would make sandwiches, except that you add toasted marshmallows and chocolate bars as the filling.
2. Telling Ghost Stories
If the young ones are up for it, you can also prepare ghost stories to add a bit of spookiness and thrill to your family night. The flickering flame from the fire pit will make the vibe scarier and more mysterious. However, be sure to pick eerie tales that will suit their ages, so you won’t have to worry about the little ones having bad dreams or wetting their beds later on.
Another great idea is to ask every member of the group to contribute or share a scary story if they know one. That’ll make the evening even more exciting. You can even turn the storytelling session into a game. Your family can vote on which tale is the creepiest, and the one who wins will receive a special prize.
3. Stargazing
After making some S’mores and sharing intriguing stories, you can introduce your kids to stargazing, a simple but romantic and fascinating activity they’ll appreciate. If you have an outdoor deck, you can hang out there and marvel at the sky dotted with stars.
But you don’t need to have an outdoor deck to enjoy the scenery. You can lie on a blanket spread on the ground or sit on outdoor lounge chairs to view the night sky with some binoculars if you’ve got some.
One more brilliant idea is to surprise your kids with a telescope so that they’ll learn about the constellations. Introduce them to stargazing apps that they can use as a guide to identify the stars and planets.
As your children grow up, they’ll realize how stargazing is not just a fun activity to do with family but also a relaxing one that lets them find inner peace, explore natural wonders, unleash their creativity, and see things from a different perspective.
4. Playing Some Instruments And Singing Songs
Maybe you know how to play the guitar or any other musical instrument. If you do, prepare a list of songs that everyone will enjoy listening or singing along to. You can take turns singing or playing if others want to perform too.
Aside from classic campfire songs like ‘Home on the Range,’ you can throw in a few catchy tunes that’ll make the kids sing to their hearts’ content. They may want to belt out ‘Baby Shark, ‘Ants Go Marching,’ and ‘We’re Going on a Bear Hunt.’
Final Words
These are just a few activities you can indulge in with the best people in your life. You can always come up with new ones that your brood will be delighted in, such as playing board games by the fire pit and watching a favorite movie on an outdoor TV. Hanging out with family around the fire pit on a beautiful night is a weekend well spent.