Snow fun for families with sledges, snowmen, igloos and angels

Go sledging in a hilly park – we might not get snow often, but when we do families make tracks for favourite sledging hills. Follow the footprints and sledge tracks in the snow to find your nearest slope.

Add sparkle to even the most routine trips out by pulling the children on a sledge to the shops. (Are there elderly neighbours who would like grocery essentials delivered by sledge?)

Build a snowman

Roll three snowballs, one big, one medium, one small, and stack them with the biggest on bottom and the smallest on top for the head. Find twigs for arms, stones for eyes, obviously a carrot for the nose, and accessorise with anything from football scarves to fancy hats.

Build an igloo

Have you got an empty recycling box? The plastic boxes (not bins) make excellent brick-moulds; otherwise try a big sturdy cardboard box. Pack the snow in to form snow bricks, put the bricks in a circle big enough to sit inside, with space for a door, then make the second and subsequent layers slightly smaller so the igloo slopes in. Pour water over the outside to smooth the sides – and unless you are fully versed in Inuit construction, leave a space where the roof should be, so there is no risk of collapse.

Create flocks of snow angels with all the family.

Feed the birds - sparrows and finches like seeds, tits like fat, thrushes and robins like fruit and starlings will eat all of the above. Birds will even help you use up leftovers such as fruit cake, apples and pears past their best and grated mild cheese.

Stop – leave your car at home, put some big boots on, and go for a walk. The everyday world is transformed by so that normal sights and sounds become magical

Look – and take some beautiful photographs to remind you of The Beast From The East

Listen – if you are close to some frozen water where you might usually be able to skim stones, try skimming them over the ice and make your own haunting, unearthly music.

Warm up inside with all the wintry fun you thought was over until next Christmas. Drink hot chocolate, watch Frozen, sing about one horse open sleighs…