Nashville Winter Fun Guide for Families

A Giant list of ideas to get out of the house and have fun with your family this winter in Nashville and Middle Tennessee.

Have some family fun this winter without breaking the bank. Use our list of free events and activities to plan a season of frugal frivolity!

Are your kids running circles in your house? But it’s too hot or cold or raining? Take them to one of Nashville’s indoor playgrounds! These places have saved our sanity more than once and we had to share them.

Roller vs Ice? You don’t have to choose! Nashville has several options to enjoy both kinds of skating.

Few family fun activities have stood the test of time like bowling. It’s a great choice when the weather turns cold, rainy or hot. It’s also a fun activity for almost every age.

If you are the parent of a preschooler, local story times in Nashville could be a great sanity saver for you. Most of our local library branches and some local businesses offer story times each week at a scheduled time. This can be an opportunity for moms and dads to meet people and make friends, especially if you are new to a community.  When my children were tiny, local story time at my library was the one day of the week that I knew we were leaving the house!  It was a time that we all looked forward to every week.

Let’s face it – movies are expensive. It can easily cost $50 just for tickets for a family of 4 to see a movie on a weekend evening. Problem is – my kids love movies and the theater experience so we have gotten creative and found some economical solutions. Here is our list of places we go for cheap and FREE movies. And at the bottom I shared my ultimate secret weapon for movies as a parent – it is my go to site to decide if I’m ok with my child seeing a particular movie. Trust me – you want to bookmark this!

Learning to cook is an important life skill that all kids should acquire on at least a basic level. But what’s a parent to do if their own cooking skills are a bit…lacking? Maybe a class taught by a culinary professional is the answer. There aren’t a huge number of cooking classes for kids available in the Nashville/Middle Tennessee area. This means that the classes and camps that do exist are crazy popular. But with some patience and advance planning, you can definitely start training your little chefs for a lifetime of gourmet adventures.

Stores are not just for shopping! There are many retail establishments that offer free and cheap kids’ workshops and classes in the Nashville area. Some have fees but most are free. There are some places that you can just come join in the fun and others that you need to sign up in advance. I’m sure there is something close to your house to keep your family busy this weekend!

Family friendly fun events happening in January.

Celebrate the life of Martin Luther King, Jr. on January 20th.

When I first learned about Nashville Zoo's newest Holiday attraction, Zoolumination, I asked myself, "Does Nashville really need another place to see lights this Christmas season?" After seeing it for myself last week, I can tell you that the answer is YES! You can visit through February 2, 2020.

February is just 28 short days. But the calendar is packed!  Black History Month, President’s Day, Valentine’s Day and Chinese New Year all get celebrated in this month. Let’s see if we can pack them full of family fun!

Get outside and participate in the annual Great Backyard Bird Count! Started in 1998 by the National Audubon Society and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, it is the first online community science project to gather data on wild birds. People in more than 100 countries participate in helping put together a global count over 96 continuous hours.

If you’re looking for ways to create some great memories for dads and their little girls, consider a Father/Daughter Dance. These events are scheduled throughout the year all over Nashville and Middle Tennessee. Most of these dances sell out very quickly so register and get tickets early.

For most of us, the passion and excitement surrounding Valentine’s Day has been replaced (temporarily!) with the busyness and dread of covering a shoebox with construction paper and taping 23 lollipops to Teenage Mutant Ninja cards.  So yeah…Valentine’s Day may not hold the promise of a romantic weekend away. But there’s still plenty of opportunities to share some love and fun this Valentine’s Day.  Most of these events are family friendly.  

Did you know that Nashville is home to a historic excursion train? The train departs from the Tennessee Central Railway Museum and offers more than twenty themed trips a year.

When I first told my husband that I wanted us to drive down to Alabama for Eagle Awareness Weekend, he was…not as excited as I was. He thought this was going to be another one of my dorky trip ideas where I was going to geek out over learning about birds of prey while he tagged along bored to tears. SPOILER ALERT — he was soooooo wrong!

Whenever Nashville gets snow, it stirs a longing in my children (and myself) to visit somewhere with LOTS of snow! It feels like snow is such a rarity here in Middle Tennessee, but it doesn’t take a far drive to find places that will give your kids that magical winter wonderland experience.