Fall Bucket List
One fall activity per card, from crisp walks and fair barns to slow-cooked suppers, to tick off before the season ends.
- Time
- 10–30 min
- Players
- One or more people
- Best for
- Fall weekends, family visits and road trips
- Deck
- 150 ideas in 6 categories
How to use these fall bucket list ideas
- Pick a category from the menu under the card, or keep “All categories”.
- Read the idea on the top card. If it sounds like your kind of fall, put it on your calendar.
- Swipe the card away, or tap “Next idea”, for another. Ideas do not repeat until you have seen the whole category.
- Tap the heart to save an idea on this device, or tap “Make a 10-idea list” to print it or stick it on the fridge as this year’s fall bucket list.
When to make a fall bucket list
Fall goes by quickly, and the fairs, the bright leaves and the last warm days are gone before most plans happen. A short list made early in the season turns “we should do that sometime” into dates on the calendar.
The first cool weekend in September
Draw from every category over coffee and heart the ten that fit your year, from a hawk-watch lookout to a welcome-fall supper with friends.
On the drive to a day out
With one person reading from the passenger seat, Out and about and Outdoors turn a drive into plans: a scenic railroad, a county fair barn, a grove of golden aspens.
Gray November evenings
When the days are short, Cozy at home, Food and baking and Creative fill an evening: a simmering pot of stew, a stack of books, a cornhusk doll at the kitchen table.
Ways to use this fall bucket list
One idea a week
Every Sunday from September on, draw one card and give it a day that week. By the end of November that is about a dozen fall things done, one at a time, without a long list hanging over you.
A household list for the fridge
Pass the phone around the kitchen table and let each person heart two ideas from any category. Tap “Make a 10-idea list”, print it, and cross each one off on the fridge as you go.
A fall weekend with friends
Before a weekend together, each friend picks a different category and draws until one card sounds right. You end up with a Saturday of mixed plans: one outing, one thing to cook, one small project and one cozy evening.
Tips for a fall list you actually finish
- Mix big and small. A drive to a fair takes a whole day, while a pot of chai or a leaf hunt fits into an evening, and the small ones keep the list moving.
- Check dates early for anything in Out and about. Fairs, plant sales and drive-ins run on their own calendars, and some close for the season by November.
- Keep a few Cozy at home ideas in reserve for rainy weekends, so a washed-out plan becomes a different item on the list instead of a lost day.
All 150 fall bucket list ideas by category
The complete list, grouped by category. The cards above draw from the same list, so you can read ahead here and pick there.
Outdoors
Leaves, trails, birds on the move and crisp afternoons out in the fresh air.
- Collect leaves from five different kinds of trees and learn each tree’s name.
- Spend an hour at a hawk-watch lookout counting hawks as they head south.
- Look for monarch butterflies resting on goldenrod on their way south.
- Listen for elk bugling at dusk in a park where elk gather each fall.
- Fill a pocket with acorns and work out how many kinds of oak grow nearby.
- Plant a handful of tulip bulbs now so something blooms next spring.
- Pitch a tent on one chilly night and wake up to frost on the outside.
- Fly a kite on the windiest afternoon of the season.
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- Toss a football around the park on a crisp Saturday afternoon.
- Walk a street lined with ginkgo trees the week they turn bright yellow.
- Photograph the colored trees reflected in a still pond on a calm morning.
- Spot a fuzzy woolly bear caterpillar crossing a path and let it pass.
- Visit a wildlife refuge and count how many kinds of ducks are on the water.
- Stand in a grove of aspens after they turn gold and listen to the leaves flutter.
- Walk an empty beach in October, wrapped in a sweater, after the summer crowds leave.
- Stomp through puddles in rain boots on a blustery fall walk.
- Hang a hammock between two trees for one last lazy afternoon outside.
- Hike to a waterfall the day after a good rain, when it runs fullest.
- Walk through an old covered bridge with fall color on both banks.
- Try to catch a falling leaf before it touches the ground on a windy day.
- Toss maple seed helicopters from a footbridge and watch them spin down.
- Open a dry milkweed pod and let the fluffy seeds float off on the wind.
- Eat lunch outside on the last warm day of the year, wherever you are.
- Watch a squirrel bury an acorn and see whether it comes back for it.
- Rake fallen leaves onto your garden beds as a free winter blanket for the soil.
Food and baking
Apples, squash, warm spices and slow-cooked suppers from your own kitchen.
- Hold an apple tasting: slice five varieties side by side and rank them.
- Roast a tray of carrots, parsnips and beets on the first chilly night.
- Bake whole apples stuffed with oats, butter and cinnamon until they’re soft.
- Make butternut squash mac and cheese for a cold Sunday supper.
- Slow-bake a pot of maple baked beans for a Saturday supper.
- Make pumpkin puree from a whole sugar pumpkin instead of opening a can.
- Bake a spiced pumpkin cake with cream cheese frosting for no particular reason.
- Let a beef stew simmer all afternoon while the whole house fills with the smell.
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- Bake cornbread in a cast-iron skillet to go with something warm.
- Toast a batch of granola with pecans and maple syrup for fall breakfasts.
- Bake soft pretzels to snack on during a Sunday afternoon game.
- Scrape a roasted spaghetti squash into strands and serve it like pasta.
- Brew a pot of chai from whole spices, black tea and milk.
- Make your own pumpkin spice syrup and stir it into your morning coffee.
- Dry thin apple slices in a low oven until they turn into chips.
- Bake cranberry orange muffins on a slow Saturday morning.
- Host a soup swap where everyone brings a pot and leaves with jars of the rest.
- Pickle a jar of the last garden vegetables before the first frost.
- Bake focaccia topped with grapes and rosemary while grapes are in season.
- Start a cold morning with steel-cut oats, sliced pears and a drizzle of maple syrup.
- Toss a fall salad of roasted squash, apple slices and toasted walnuts.
- Make no-churn pumpkin ice cream and eat a bowl of it in a sweater.
- Bake a batch of molasses spice cookies and share them with friends.
- Bake sweet potato biscuits and eat them warm with honey butter.
- Roast a whole chicken with apples and onions tucked in around it.
Cozy at home
Blankets, warm drinks and small comforts for the shorter, cooler days.
- Simmer orange peel, cloves and cinnamon on the stove just for the smell.
- Unpack your sweaters from storage and put on your favorite one right away.
- Pile three books by the bed and finish them all before the first snow.
- Keep one Sunday afternoon completely free and spend it in your softest clothes.
- Keep a small fall journal with one line each evening about the weather.
- Try a different hot drink each weekend, like golden milk or a vanilla steamer.
- Bring the potted plants indoors before the first frost and give them a sunny window.
- Fill a basket by the couch with every soft blanket in the house.
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- Match up every glove and mitten in the house before the first cold snap.
- Listen to a long audiobook over a few gray afternoons while you fold laundry.
- Open every window on the first cool, dry day and let fresh air through.
- Wash the windows inside and out so the low fall sun pours in.
- Dry the last of the garden mint and brew your own tea from it.
- Rewatch a show you loved years ago, one episode each chilly evening.
- Now that the sun rises later, watch it come up from the kitchen window.
- Tuck a hot water bottle under the covers on a frosty night.
- Work through a crossword with your morning tea every day in November.
- Swap the bright bulbs in your lamps for warm ones for the long evenings.
- Invite friends over for a sweater night: cozy knits required, warm drinks provided.
- Pack the car with a blanket, gloves and a thermos for chilly fall drives.
- Play one long chess game with someone at home, one move each evening.
- Listen to an old radio comedy show with the lights low and a warm drink.
- Camp out on the living room floor in sleeping bags on a stormy night.
- Eat dinner by the window on a November evening and watch the early sunset.
- Warm a blanket in the dryer and wrap up in it the second it’s done.
Out and about
Farms, fairs, markets and local outings that come around this time of year.
- Ride a scenic railroad through the hills while the leaves are turning.
- Watch a giant pumpkin weigh-off and guess the winner’s weight before it’s announced.
- Walk through the animal barns at a county fair and meet the prize rabbits.
- Study the blue-ribbon quilts and jams in a fair’s exhibit hall.
- Ride the Ferris wheel at a fall fair just as the sun goes down.
- Watch a wet cranberry harvest, with red berries floating across a flooded bog.
- Browse a fall craft fair and bring home one handmade thing.
- Take a fall foliage boat tour on a river or lake.
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- Watch a small-town fall parade from the curb with a warm drink in hand.
- Hunt for one vintage treasure at an outdoor flea market on a crisp morning.
- Visit a living history farm and watch the old-fashioned harvest chores.
- Walk a path lined with hundreds of carved, glowing jack-o’-lanterns.
- Stroll a town’s scarecrow display and vote for your favorite.
- See a community theater’s fall play and stay to clap at the bows.
- See a chrysanthemum show at a conservatory, with blooms trained into giant domes.
- Take a daytime walking tour of an old neighborhood under the fall colors.
- Watch a sheepdog trial and cheer each flock of sheep into the pen.
- Visit a bird-banding station during fall migration and see a songbird up close.
- Fill a bag at the library’s fall book sale.
- Meet the sheep and browse the yarn at a sheep and wool festival.
- Watch an old water-powered mill grind corn, then take home a bag of cornmeal.
- Buy popcorn still on the cob at a farm stand and pop it at home.
- Catch a movie at a drive-in theater before it closes for the season.
- Watch rowing crews race on a river from a bridge or the bank.
- Shop a botanical garden’s fall plant sale for one new perennial.
Creative
Fall projects for your hands, made from leaves, yarn, paint, paper and corn husks.
- Knot a macramé plant hanger from rust and mustard cord for a fall window.
- Shoot one photo every day in October, then pick your favorite on the 31st.
- Sew a pillow cover from a flannel shirt nobody wears anymore.
- Weave a small wall hanging on a cardboard loom with fall-colored yarn.
- Glue fallen leaves onto paper to make a fox, an owl or a hedgehog.
- Make a mosaic of dried beans, lentils and corn kernels on a board.
- Write a haiku each day for a week about one small fall thing.
- Mix watercolors until you match every color in one fallen leaf.
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- Turn a glass jar into a lantern with tissue-paper leaves and a tea light.
- Arrange leaves, acorns and stones into a big circle pattern on the lawn.
- Fold dried corn husks into a little cornhusk doll.
- Stuff old clothes with straw and build a scarecrow for the yard.
- Cut an apple crosswise to find the star, then use it as a paint stamp.
- Embroider a single orange leaf on a plain tote bag.
- Practice brush lettering until you can write “October” beautifully.
- Sew a soft pumpkin from an old sweater sleeve, with a stick for the stem.
- Mix cinnamon and applesauce into a dough and cut out leaf shapes that scent the room.
- Fold a bowl full of origami maple leaves in reds and golds.
- Build a tiny fairy house from bark, moss and acorn caps under a tree.
- Dye a white scarf golden in a pot of simmered onion skins.
- Draw a map of your favorite fall walk with every landmark along the way.
- Paint a canvas in fall colors only, with no greens or blues allowed.
- Film a time-lapse of a fall sunset from your porch or window.
- Lash twigs together with twine into a rustic picture frame.
- Write and illustrate a tiny book about a squirrel getting ready for winter.
Little traditions
Small yearly rituals that make the season feel like yours, alone or together.
- Mark the first day of fall with the same special breakfast every year.
- Take a photo with your people in the same spot every October and line them up.
- Light a candle at dinner every evening in November.
- On the first day of fall, write three small goals to finish before the year ends.
- Throw a small welcome-fall supper with friends on the first weekend of autumn.
- Rake leaves for a neighbor once each fall, just because.
- Unpack the fall decorations on the same day each year, with music playing.
- Watch the same feel-good movie every year on the first cold night.
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- Clear out one closet each fall and donate what nobody wore all year.
- Reread one favorite book every fall and notice what you catch this time.
- Watch the sunset on the fall equinox, when day and night are nearly equal.
- Choose one recipe to make every October and write the year on its card each time.
- Take one weekday off at peak color and spend the whole of it outside.
- Mark the first evening cold enough for a coat with a mug of hot cocoa.
- Wear something orange on the first day of fall, even if it’s just socks.
- Hold one last backyard cookout before the grill gets covered for winter.
- Take a short walk after Sunday dinner every week until the first snow.
- Plant garlic cloves in October and dig up the new bulbs next summer.
- Read one poem about autumn aloud at the first fall family dinner.
- Keep a bowl on the windowsill for one leaf, acorn or feather from each fall walk.
- Spend one family yard day raking and tidying, then share a big pot of something warm.
- Write down the date of each fall first: first sweater, first frost, first fire.
- Walk the same favorite trail on the first Sunday of October, year after year.
- Pack away the sandals and beach towels in one go, and say goodbye to summer.
- On the last day of fall, look back at this list and circle your favorite.
Frequently asked questions
How many fall bucket list ideas are there?
There are 150 ideas, 25 in each of six categories: outdoors, food and baking, cozy at home, out and about, creative, and little traditions. The cards and the list on this page use the same set.
Is there a fall list for couples?
Yes. Fall date ideas are written for two people planning a date, with cozy nights in, walks in the leaves and things to bake together. The ideas on this page work for anyone, on your own or with friends and family, and they are different from the date ideas.
When does fall bucket list season start and end?
In the US it runs roughly from September to November. Early fall is the time for fairs, farm outings and the last warm afternoons, while the leaves usually peak somewhere in between, depending on where you live. Late fall is better for Cozy at home and Little traditions.
What should we play after the fall bucket list?
Try things to do when bored. Those ideas work in any season, so they help on a gray afternoon when you have already done the fall plans you had for the week.