I have always loved fall.
I am a homebody at heart, so this time of year has always felt a little bit like it was made for me. Give me a crisp fall day, something good cooking in the kitchen, a candle burning and a book to curl up with and I am very happy.
Granted, leisurely afternoons spent reading on the couch aren’t exactly the season of life I’m in right now.
But I’ve found so many new reasons to love fall.
I love cooking when the weather starts to cool down. I love opening the windows, making our home feel cozy, having people over for dinner and finding excuses to slow down together as a family. There’s something about this stretch of the year that makes ordinary life feel a little more special.
And becoming a mom has made all of it that much sweeter.
I get to do the things I’ve always loved about fall, but now I get to experience them with my son.
Last fall, we took him apple picking and I wore him in the baby carrier while he slept through almost the entire thing. This year, he’s walking. He points at everything. He wants to explore.
I can’t wait to watch him toddle around the orchard, see the pumpkins, crunch through the leaves and take it all in. He may still be too little to really understand why we’re doing any of it, but I get to watch him experience it. And that’s pretty special.
It also makes me realize just how much can change between one fall and the next.
A Bucket List for the Whole Season
Back in August, I made an August Bucket List with 12 simple ways to savor the last weeks of summer. I loved having a little list of ideas to pull from when we wanted to make an ordinary day feel special.
So naturally, I had to make one for my favorite season.
This time, though, we’re not limiting ourselves to one month. This is our bucket list for the entire fall season, from those first September days when I’m pretending 75 degrees is sweater weather all the way through Thanksgiving.
And as someone who is a serial list maker, I need to put this reminder here mostly for myself:
The goal is not to check off all 25 things.
This isn’t another to-do list.
It’s a collection of little things that might help us slow down, get out of our normal routine and enjoy the season we’re actually in.
Some are outings. Some are traditions. Some involve feeding people, because of course they do. And some are as simple as making coffee at home or putting our phones away for the night.
🍂 The Cozy Fall Bucket List
📌 Save the graphic to Pinterest or screenshot it to keep on your phone and come back to throughout the season.
- 🎃 Visit a pumpkin patch
- 🍎 Go apple picking
- 🫖 Make a fall simmer pot
- 📝 Start a gratitude journal
- 🍲 Host a cozy soup night
- 👻 Watch a nostalgic Halloween movie
- 🍁 Take a scenic fall walk
- 🎡 Visit a local fall festival
- 🧁 Bake something to share with a friend
- 🏈 Have a cozy Sunday football afternoon
- 🎃 Decorate or carve pumpkins
- ⚡ Have a Harry Potter movie night
- ✂️ Make a fall craft
- 📖 Cook something from a cookbook
- 🍽️ Have friends over for a cozy dinner
- 🚗 Take a scenic fall drive
- 🍏 Eat a caramel apple
- 🧸 Make a fall sensory bin
- 🤎 Host or attend a Friendsgiving
- 🧶 Start a knitting project
- 📚 Read a fall book
- ☕ Make a seasonal coffee at home
- 🚲 Go on a family bike ride
- 📵 Have a screen-free cozy night
- 🗺️ Take a fall road trip
A Few Things I’m Especially Looking Forward To
Apple Picking & Pumpkin Patches
These are classics for a reason.
I think I’m especially excited for them this year because my son is at such a different age than he was last fall. Last year I carried him through the orchard. This year, I’ll probably be chasing him through it.
There is something really sweet about returning to the same seasonal traditions and realizing just how much your family has changed since the last time you did them.
Making Home Feel Like Fall
I don’t think making a season feel special has to mean constantly going somewhere.
Honestly, some of my favorite fall days are the ones spent at home.
A simmer pot on the stove. Soup cooking for dinner. A seasonal coffee in the afternoon. Pumpkins on the porch. A movie we’ve watched a hundred times playing after dinner.
I’m learning that traditions don’t necessarily have to be big events. Sometimes they’re just the little things you repeat often enough that eventually they become part of what home feels like.
Cooking, Baking & Feeding People
This will surprise absolutely no one who reads Dishing Up Chic, but a good portion of my fall plans involve food.
I want to bake something and drop it off for a friend. I want to cook from an actual cookbook instead of immediately reaching for my phone. I want Sunday afternoons with football on and something good to snack on.
And I really want to have a cozy soup night.
Give me a big pot of soup, crusty bread, friends around the table and nowhere anyone needs to rush off to. That’s pretty much my ideal fall evening.
Slowing Down at Home
Not everything on the list needs to turn into an outing or activity.
I want to start a gratitude journal. Pick up my knitting again. Read a fall book. Have a night where we put away our phones and turn off the TV.
Those might actually be some of the things I’m looking forward to most.
Life with a little one isn’t exactly slow, but I think there are still ways to create little pockets of slowness within it.
Making the Ordinary Days Feel Special
I know myself.
There is a very real possibility that I will look at this list sometime in November, see unchecked boxes and immediately start calculating how many fall activities I can reasonably fit into a weekend.
So I’m saying this now:
We don’t have to finish the list.
That’s not what it’s for.
There will be ordinary Tuesdays when we don’t make it to a pumpkin patch or take a scenic drive. Maybe all we do is make a seasonal coffee at home while my son plays nearby.
That counts.
Maybe we make soup for dinner.
Maybe we go outside and notice that the leaves have suddenly changed.
Maybe we put our phones away for a couple of hours and actually enjoy being home together.
That counts, too.
I’m not trying to rush through fall so we can get to Halloween, and I’m definitely not trying to rush through Halloween so we can get to Christmas. I want to let each part of this season have its turn.
Because we’re entering what is, in my opinion, the very best stretch of the year: fall, changing leaves, cozy food, family traditions and eventually the holidays.
And somehow, we’re also approaching the end of another year.
I’m very aware these days of how quickly one season becomes the next. My sleeping baby at the apple orchard last fall will be a little boy walking through it this year. Next fall, he’ll be different all over again.
I can’t make any of it slow down.
But I can make an effort to notice it.
So that’s what this bucket list is really for.
Not 25 boxes that need to be checked.
Just 25 excuses to make an ordinary day feel a little special, spend time with the people I love and soak up this season while we’re in it.
A Little Help Checking Off Your Fall Bucket List
What are you most looking forward to this fall? Tell me in the comments below! I’d love to hear what’s on your list. 🍂
And if a few of the food-related ideas caught your eye, I have some recipes that might help you check them off. Whether you’re planning a cozy Sunday at home, baking something to share with a friend or just looking for something good to make on a crisp fall day, I’ve gathered a few favorites below.
Happy cozy season. 🍂🤎
Dishing Up Chic 