Toddler Travel Gear: Winter Fun

It's ski season here in New England and my toddler is finally old enough to hit the slopes. It may be 15 minutes but we're gonna have fun!

Each month, I’ll send a curated gear guide about a specific area of toddler travel. These posts may contain affiliate links, which means if you make a purchase through them, I earn a small commission at no cost to you. I promise I’ll only recommend gear I’ve personally tried and loved. Thank you for supporting Travel with Toddlers!

I always knew I got lucky with my happy-to-be-here baby. In the darkest days of postpartum sleep deprivation and healing, I could count on their easy smile. The kid was content (though I did have to hold them 100% of the time) and generally, I could run the diaper-feeding-sleeping circuit and solve whatever it was that made them cry in a few moments.

Until the first time I took them out in the snow.

Tentative, unhappy steps in melting snow.

I got so excited the first snowfall at around nine months that I bundled them up and put them in a little precious vintage-style sled and paraded around the yard, narrating all the way. And this kid was not having a moment of it. The stink eye I got as the snow fell, making our little yard sparkle? I had to laugh.

Several years later and the LOOK is still there for snowy outings. Poor kid has no idea how cold it will really get in just a few weeks…🥶

The key is layers. Lots of layers.

The thing that I try to remember in the moment is that once we get playing in the snow we have so much fun. We’re lucky enough to have relatives who live in snowy Vermont and Maine and we’ll be skiing and sledding this winter as much as we can at home, too. As I plan I’m thinking about:

• Setting the right expectations. I went to school in Maine and we used to say a 0 degree day was balmy. Literally, we’d take off our gloves and hats and warm our faces in the sunshine. Cold tolerance takes a lot of time to build up, and your toddler does not have it. Expect to want to go inside after a half hour, and that’s okay.

• Keeping it fun. Since we’re still at the beginning of skiing, sledding, and winter play, I want the association to be fun. Even if my toddler doesn’t remember the specifics, he knows already that the doctor = pain and that the cafe = peanut butter sandwiches, so I want him to think snow = fun and not snow = misery.

• Bringing multiple sets of layers. I dress my toddler the way I dress myself for chilly play days, which means a base layer, a mid layer, and a super warm waterproof outer layer. Two pairs of socks. Maybe two pairs of gloves. (The gloves are still a bit of a struggle. If anyone has tips/games for that, please, please leave a comment!)

Part of this means finding a great home base for your vacation—lots of ski lodges have indoor water parks or other kid-friendly amenities—and thinking about easy in/out access. This is not the stage of my life where I’m piling a group of ten into an Airbnb 10 miles away from the ski mountain and driving there in the morning…we are going to stay as close as possible to the action.

I’m more of a Nordic skier, and I’ve loved staying at the Wentworth Hotel in Jackson, NH (c/o); Trapp Family Lodge in Stowe, VT; and Craftsbury Outdoor Center in Craftsbury, VT. I wrote a full article on this for Family Vacationist here.

Make sure you stay warm and everything fits for a cold-weather vacation.

The kinds of layers I buy again and again as my toddler grows out of them. All links below.

I buy most of my gear secondhand, which a few exceptions. Most of those exceptions are hiking/snow gear because I really, really want it to be high quality and warm. Almost all of our winter clothes budget goes to these (admittedly pricier) items. That includes:

• Base layers. Multiple pairs of tops and bottoms. I like Woolino, SmartWool, and REI because they’re not scratchy. Fleece jammies would work as well.

• Similarly, I go BIG on the snowsuit. I buy Helly Hansen or Reima.

• When my toddler was a baby, I would do a fleece bunting underneath a big puffy bunting.

• I buy about ten pairs of normal gloves from Target and then one expensive pair of waterproof ones.

• I go for high-visibility with colors, especially in the woods near us where hunting is allowed. This hat is a good one to go under a hood.

• I buy two pairs of snow boots in case one gets wet in the morning, and also so I can leave one at daycare.

Whether you rent or bring, there’s certain gear you need to stay safe and have fun when it’s cold out.

The gear that we’ve used so far in our winter play. We have rented a few of these and own others. All links below.

With snow gear, we’ve mostly rented so far. But we do own our very own sled, which I hope we get more use out of in future years. In the meantime, here is what we’ve used:

• These are the toddler skis that worked for us.

• I’m not sure what brand sled we used when we visited our relatives, but a tube worked much better than the regular sled.

• The Thule chariot was a beast last time we went skiing, which allowed us to actually get a few runs in. You need the xc kit for it if you want it to work in the snow.

Open to more recommendations! Leave a comment, let the people know.

Snow-themed books!

I am a big fan of seasonal books, and these are a few of the ones we’ve been loving this winter so far. I love, love, love asking my local librarian their favorite snow-themed books (or whatever-theme we’re thinking of that week). Librarians are the BEST.

• The Mitten by Jan Brett is a classic for a reason.

• The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats is another delightful classic we read all year long.

• My toddler is a big truck kid, so no surprises that we love Good Morning, Snowplow by Deborah Bruss.

• Owl Moon by Jane Yolen is absolutely gorgeous bedtime book. (We are also very into birds at the moment.)

Thanks for being here.

I love nothing better than a winter hike in the woods. The silence is so wonderful. (Not that I get much silence with a toddler in tow, lol.)

I think winter is underrated, honestly. And having a kid makes winter so much more fun, if we can find ways to get outside and play on a regular basis. I know most folks prioritize finding summer when it gets cold outside (we have our own spring break trip booked, so I get it, I get it) but the older I get, the more I appreciate winter.

We may be the only people on a snowy playground, but we’re going to get outside no matter what. I joke that the alternative is destroying my house, but it’s really about teaching myself and my toddler a ‘lil bit of resilience and an excuse for post-outing hot chocolate and cookies, too.

Stay warm,

Kayla

Thank you for supporting Travel with Toddlers! If you liked this issue, please like it, share it, all the things. It really does mean a lot. I’m just a mom in the thick of the toddler years trying to create core memories for our whole family while minimizing meltdowns—I sincerely hope this helps you do the same.