A Dozen Things to Do This Fall 🍂
Fall always sneaks up on me.
It starts with that little crispness in the air on the morning dog walk. You notice you’re pulling your sleeves over your hands. The leaves are just starting to change. Coffee suddenly tastes better outside.
And then approximately twelve minutes later, I’m baking a pie, digging through the Halloween decorations, and crocheting yet another blanket as though there is some sort of blanket shortage I have personally been asked to solve.
So this year, I’m leaning into it.
I made myself a little seasonal bucket list: 12 cute, cozy things to do this fall.
Nothing wildly ambitious. No hiking a mountain at sunrise while wearing an artisanal wool cape.
Just crafts, baking, pumpkins, movies, and tiny seasonal pleasures.
1. Visit a Pumpkin Patch 🎃
Obviously.
I want the full experience. Pumpkins everywhere. Slightly muddy shoes. Apple cider if they have it. A completely unnecessary number of photos.
And yes, I will spend fifteen minutes choosing between six pumpkins that are essentially identical.
2. Make a PSL at Home ☕
There is something deeply satisfying about making seasonal coffee at home.
Pumpkin. Cinnamon. Nutmeg. Whipped cream if we’re feeling fancy.
I usually use a sugar-free pumpkin spice syrup because it makes this ridiculously easy, and little bonus discovery: it is also so good stirred into Greek yogurt when you want something that tastes vaguely like dessert without actually making dessert.
Bonus points if your PSL is served in a mug approximately the size of your head while you’re working on a crochet project.
3. Bake a Pumpkin Pie 🥧
October is pumpkin pie month.
September is for apple pie, October is for pumpkin pie. I don’t make the rules. I simply respect the natural order of things.
There needs to be at least one proper pumpkin pie this season, preferably with an irresponsible amount of whipped cream.
4. Bake an Apple Pie 🍎
September belongs to apple pie.
That first slightly chilly stretch of the season practically demands cinnamon, baked apples, and a kitchen that smells incredible for the rest of the afternoon.
Then October arrives and pumpkin politely takes over.
Again, I don’t make the rules.
5. Celebrate Thanksgiving 🍁
Good food. Family. Cozy sweaters. A table covered in dishes that somehow required every pot in the kitchen.
And because we’re Canadian, Thanksgiving lands about two weeks before Halloween, which means fall around here moves fast.
We do Thanksgiving, immediately pivot into full Halloween mode, and then the second Halloween is over?
Basically Christmas.
There is no intermission.
A Couple of Pie Things 🥧
If you’re making pies this fall, you really don’t need much.
A basic pie dish will absolutely do the job, and a set of pie weights is handy if you’re blind-baking crusts.
But if you already know there are going to be multiple pies happening between now and Christmas, this is also your permission to buy the cute pie dish.
A little fluted edge? Adorable.
A porcelain dish with a pretty detail around the rim? Completely unnecessary.
Also somehow completely worth it when you pull an apple pie out of the oven looking like it belongs in a tiny countryside bakery.
6. Have a Halloween Party 👻
It does not need to be elaborate.
A few decorations. Halloween snacks. A ridiculous playlist. Maybe everyone has to wear something vaguely spooky.
I am always in favour of creating an excuse to put tiny candy eyeballs on food.
Cookies? Eyeballs.
Cupcakes? Eyeballs.
A bowl of something that absolutely did not require a face?
Congratulations. It has eyes now.
7. Decorate Halloween Sugar Cookies 🍪
This is equal parts baking project and craft project, which means it counts twice in my heart.
Ghosts. Pumpkins. Bats. Black cats.
Will mine look like the impossibly perfect ones on Pinterest?
Almost certainly not.
Will I eat the evidence?
Absolutely.
The Cookie Decorating Supplies I Actually Reach For
You do not need seventeen drawers of professional decorating equipment to make cute Halloween cookies.
A pack of Wilton piping bags, a few good gel food colours, and a simple cookie decorating kit with piping tips will get you surprisingly far.
Then you can spend twenty minutes making the perfect tiny ghost face before immediately eating it.
Balance.
8. Crochet Something Cozy 🧶
Fall is when yarn starts whispering to me from across the room.
Suddenly I want scarves. Blankets. Sweaters. Anything soft enough to justify sitting on the couch under another blanket while making it.
If you want a full fall project, the Long December Scarf is exactly the kind of thing I want on my hook when the weather cools down.
Or, if your dog also believes they deserve a seasonal wardrobe, Wonderstruck is a very good excuse to make them something cozy too.
And if you need yarn, I usually start by browsing LoveCrafts, which is dangerous because I go looking for yarn for one project and somehow leave mentally committed to seven.
9. Watch Hocus Pocus 🧙♀️
Some movies are movies.
Some movies are seasonal obligations.
Hocus Pocus falls firmly into category two.
Blanket required. Snacks encouraged.
10. Carve Pumpkins 🎃
There is always a point during pumpkin carving where I remember that pumpkin guts are cold, slippery, and objectively weird.
And yet every year, we do it again.
Because seeing those little glowing faces outside at night makes it worth it.
If you are still attacking pumpkins with a giant kitchen knife, a proper pumpkin carving kit makes this dramatically easier.
Tiny saws designed specifically for pumpkins are one of those things that sound unnecessary until you use them once.
11. Decorate for Halloween 🕷️
I’m not saying every available surface needs a pumpkin, ghost, bat, skeleton, candle, or suspicious little ceramic witch.
But I’m also not not saying that.
This is their season.
Let them live.
12. Dress Up the Porch Goose 🪿
Possibly the most important item on this list.
Our porch goose deserves seasonal fashion.
I don’t know exactly what the fall wardrobe will involve yet, but I’m picturing scarves. Maybe a tiny Halloween costume. Possibly something involving a pumpkin.
If you do not currently own a porch goose, I should warn you that acquiring one creates responsibilities.
You will start noticing little outfits.
Then seasonal outfits.
Then Halloween costumes.
Then suddenly you are standing outside changing a goose into a tiny scarf because the temperature dropped six degrees.
I don’t know exactly what our fall wardrobe will involve yet, but I’m picturing scarves. Maybe a tiny Halloween costume. Possibly something involving a pumpkin.
The goose will be participating.https://amzn.to/4Adf6rc
Your Turn 🍂
I made a little A Dozen Things to Do This Fall graphic you can save and share too.
Use it as a bucket list, cross things off as you go, or steal a few ideas for your own fall plans.
And if you post yours, tag me because I absolutely want to see what you’re making, baking, carving, decorating, and putting on your porch goose.
Fall is short.
We might as well squeeze every last cinnamon-covered, pumpkin-shaped, yarn-filled bit of joy out of it.
