“I can’t put my arms down!” 

“You can put your arms down when you get to school.”

These lines, from the movie classic A Christmas Story, echo internally whenever I’m bundling my young children up to play outside in cold weather. 

When I became a parent, I made creating a nature-intensive childhood a priority. I scoured my Washington, DC–area local community for nature immersion opportunities and was lucky to find options—during warm months, that is. Though I shivered at the idea of tagging along while my kids toddled through the woods in January, I did so anyway, and discovered a quiet joy I find unique to the season. 

According to Scott D. Sampson, author of How to Raise a Wild Child, American children spend an average of four to seven minutes playing outside each day. That number drops even further during colder months, when conventional American parenting wisdom says, “Avoid it—you can catch a cold!—and if you have to, bundle up and get inside asap.” 

But while many American families hunker down inside during winter, some cultures take the opposite approach. In Denmark and other Nordic countries, for instance, caregivers bundle babies up and park their pink-cheeked charges outside of cafés, in gardens and yards, and outside of daycares, where they nap in strollers or bassinets. 

The purported benefits of this midwife- and pediatrician-recommended practice? Scandinavian devotees swear it results in a strengthened immune system, thanks to all that fresh air and time spent away from the various cold and bug germs swirling around daycare centers. They also believe it lays the foundation for a close relationship with nature. 

Embracing the cold is something Finnish parents know a thing or two about as well. Sauna time is a huge aspect of Finland's family culture—parents sit with their children in outdoor wooden saunas, pouring water on hot stones to maintain heat. When they need to cool down, family members dip out into the chilly air, or even take a quick plunge in freezing water before heading back into the sauna. For many Finnish families, enjoying the sauna together has become a unifying Christmas Eve tradition. 

In Germany, the importance of time in all weather, including the cold of winter, extends to preschool and kindergarten-age children. Educator Friedrich Frobel created Waldkita, or forest kindergartens, in Germany in the 1830s. Today, Germany is home to more than 2,000 waldkitas, and the concept has proliferated throughout the globe. 

The benefits of a consistent immersive outdoor education, proponents say, include increased mental and emotional health, improved physical health, enhanced gross and fine motor skills, and most important, an intractable connection to nature.

“[Allowing children] direct, unstructured contact with the natural world in all seasons helps them cultivate an ecological identity,” says Rose Brusaferro, acting nature preschool director at Nature Forward, a DC-area organization. “When children develop a sense of self born from their relationship with the natural world, they are primed to seek out and receive all the mental, physical, spiritual, and intellectual benefits that the human-nature connection provides.”

Even during winter? “Allowing children to fully experience each season, and directly observe the cyclical occurrences of life on Earth, puts them in tune with their environment in ways that can lead to meaningful attachments to nature,” Brusaferro says. “It's important for children to feel the cold, see the darkness, and hear the silence of the earth going dormant in order for them to more profoundly appreciate the circular nature of life."

“It's important for children to feel the cold, see the darkness, and hear the silence of the earth going dormant in order for them to more profoundly appreciate the circular nature of life."

As full-time immersive nature schools may be out of reach for reasons of cost, time, or distance, many families are turning to grassroots programs to help connect their children to nature during all seasons. When my oldest daughter was young, I hosted and attended meetups through Free Forest School, a nationwide nonprofit with a mission to “nurture kids and empower adults by connecting to nature, culture, and each other through outdoor play.” Through its extensive volunteer network, parents and caregivers connect and convene in natural outdoor spaces, where children can roam and play in an unstructured environment. 

"Getting outside in the winter is so beneficial for our mental health and overall well-being!” says Clarice Amorim Freitas, the Alaska-based executive director of FFS. “Living in Alaska, I can personally testify that getting outside in the colder months can help fight depression and anxiety, energize our bodies, and nourish our social lives.” 

Freitas thinks the biggest challenges caregivers face in trying to get their children outside in colder weather lie in the lack of knowledge and social support. “When it’s cold, it is easy to be overwhelmed by the prospect of dressing up, packing gear, and enjoying time in nature in a safe way,” she says. “However, when we do those things in community—when a parent has someone who can show them how to dress children for the weather, who can share tips of where to go and what to do, and who can tag along with them in those experiences—everything becomes easier.” 

As the majority of American schools, both public and private, offer students little or no access to nature, innovative after-school programming provided by businesses, local governments, and nonprofit organizations like Forest Explorers (based in Takoma Park, Maryland, and offering afternoon nature immersion for kids ages seven to 11) help to bridge this gap.

“In all seasons, children crave loosely structured time to be creative together outside,” says program founder and director Shannon Earle. “Watching one tree produce seeds, turn colors, lose leaves, produce sweet sap, and then burst with green in spring, brings those natural cycles alive for children. Nature always brings us something new to see or do, and children feel a deep bond with the places where they explore and play. In winter, we find animal tracks in the snow, slide on ice, and tell stories by lantern light. With the right gear, there is no bad weather.”

Now, let’s venture to Siberia, where schools prioritize the physical benefits of the cold to the extent that some kindergarteners enjoy a daily snow bath ritual. Yes, snow baths. 

With parental consent, kindergarteners head out into freezing, snowy weather in their bathing suits and spend approximately a minute rubbing snow all over their bodies. Afterward, they dump individual buckets of ice-cold water over their heads. Rosy-cheeked and grinning, the kids head back inside. Teachers, parents, and health-care providers say they consistently see improved physical health and resiliency when children engage in daily snow baths. 

Whether you and your family can head to the sauna or take a plunge in a frozen lake or simply hang out in your backyard a bit longer, know that the benefits of getting outside in the chill are well documented, and accessible. You’ll find my children and me wintering in the chilly Maryland air, as much as possible, this season.