Winter activities for kids in Westchester: 10 things to do when it’s cold

Around November, the same thing happens every year. The weather turns, the parks empty out, and parents start scrambling for ways to keep their kids busy without losing their minds. I get it. I teach skateboarding year-round in Westchester, so I’ve watched this cycle play out from the inside. The good news is that Westchester County has more winter options for kids than most people realize—you just have to know where to look.

This isn’t a list of ten ways to book a skateboard lesson with me. It’s a real rundown of winter activities across the county—indoor and outdoor, active and creative, for toddlers through teenagers. Skateboarding is one of them, but only because it genuinely works as a winter activity when you have an indoor park nearby.

1. Indoor rock climbing

Rock climbing is one of those activities that tires kids out in the best way. The kind of tired where they sleep well and don’t argue about bedtime. There are several climbing gyms within reach of Westchester—facilities in White Plains, New Rochelle, and just across the border in Rockland County offer bouldering and top-rope walls for kids as young as four or five. Most have youth programs and don’t require any prior experience. Walk-in sessions typically run $20 to $35 per person with gear rental included.

2. Ice skating

Westchester has indoor rinks that stay open through the winter regardless of conditions outside. The Ebersole Ice Rink in White Plains, the rink at the Westchester Skating Academy in Elmsford, and the ice rink at New Roc City in New Rochelle all offer public skating sessions and learn-to-skate programs. For outdoor skating, the Winter Wonderland rink in Valhalla opens seasonally and Bear Mountain is a short drive north. Admission is usually $10 to $18 plus skate rental if you don’t have your own.

3. Museums and science centers

A museum trip doesn’t have to feel like a school field trip. The Hudson River Museum in Yonkers has a planetarium and rotating exhibits that hold kids’ attention better than you’d expect. The Katonah Museum of Art runs hands-on workshops for families during the winter months. If your kids lean toward science, the closest options are the Intrepid and AMNH in Manhattan—a Metro-North ride away and worth it on a cold Saturday. For younger kids, the Westchester Children’s Museum in Rye has interactive exhibits designed for the under-eight crowd.

4. Bowling

Bowling works for almost every age. It’s one of those activities where a three-year-old with bumpers and a fifteen-year-old trying to break 200 can both have a good time in the same lane. Westchester has bowling alleys in several towns including New Rochelle, Tarrytown, and Yorktown Heights. Prices run around $7 to $12 per game plus shoe rental. Some alleys run cosmic bowling nights with music and blacklights, which teenagers seem to find significantly less boring than regular bowling.

5. Indoor skateboarding

This is the one I know best, so I’ll give it the detail it deserves. 2nd Nature Indoor Skatepark is a covered, climate-controlled facility right here in Westchester. It has ramps, rails, and enough flat ground for beginners to learn comfortably. When the outdoor parks are wet, icy, or covered in leaves, this is where I bring my students.

I teach private lessons there through the winter months. Kids as young as three can start with the basics—balance, pushing, steering—on flat ground, and older kids can work on park features at their own pace. I bring all the gear, so you don’t need to own anything before the first session. If your kid has never been on a board, this is honestly the easiest way to try it. No weather concerns, no distractions, and a controlled environment where they can fall safely.

Skateboarding is also one of those activities that travels well. Once a kid learns the basics indoors, they can take it outside as soon as spring shows up. They’re not starting from zero in April—they already know how to ride. If you want to read more about what the first lesson looks like, I wrote about that here.

6. Trampoline parks

If your kid has energy to burn—and in winter, they all do—trampoline parks are hard to beat. Facilities in the area offer wall-to-wall trampolines, foam pits, dodgeball courts, and ninja courses. Sessions usually run $15 to $30 per hour. The appeal is straightforward: kids jump until they can’t jump anymore. It’s physical, it’s fun, and it requires zero skill to start. Most parks have dedicated toddler areas too, so little ones aren’t sharing space with teenagers launching backflips.

7. Cooking and baking classes

Winter is good weather for making food. Several spots in Westchester run kids’ cooking classes—from cupcake decorating for younger kids to actual meal prep for teenagers. Places in Scarsdale, Larchmont, and White Plains offer drop-in and series-based classes during the school year and over winter break. It’s a solid change of pace from physical activities, and kids end up with something they can eat afterward, which tends to hold their interest.

8. Art studios and craft workshops

Paint-your-own-pottery studios, candle-making workshops, and open art classes are scattered across Westchester. Towns like Mamaroneck, Pleasantville, and Hastings-on-Hudson have small studios that run drop-in sessions and winter workshops for kids. Pottery painting is a good option for mixed-age groups since there’s no skill floor—a five-year-old and a twelve-year-old can both sit at the same table and make something they’re proud of. Prices are usually $15 to $40 depending on the item.

9. Indoor swimming

It sounds counterintuitive in January, but indoor pools don’t care what month it is. Several YMCAs across the county have lap pools and open swim times. The pool at the Westchester County Center in White Plains offers public swim sessions, and local rec centers in towns like Dobbs Ferry and Ossining have year-round swimming programs. If your kid is already in swim lessons, winter is a good time to keep the momentum going instead of taking a three-month break and losing progress.

10. Winter hiking and sledding

Not every winter day is unbearable. On the decent ones, getting outside is still the best option. Rockefeller State Park Preserve in Pleasantville has easy, well-maintained trails that are manageable for kids. Cranberry Lake Preserve in North White Plains is another good one—shorter trails with some wildlife if you’re lucky. Blue Mountain Reservation in Peekskill has terrain for cross-country skiing and snowshoeing when there’s enough snow. And almost every town has a local sledding hill that gets packed after the first real snowfall. No admission fee required.

The real challenge is consistency

The hardest part of winter with kids isn’t finding one activity for one Saturday. It’s filling three or four months of shorter days and bad weather with enough variety that nobody goes stir-crazy. My advice is to mix it up. One week do something physical—climbing, skating, skateboarding. The next week do something creative—art, cooking, a museum. Throw in an outdoor day whenever conditions allow.

The activities that tend to stick are the ones where kids feel like they’re getting better at something. That’s why things like skateboarding, rock climbing, and swimming work so well as recurring winter activities—there’s visible progress from one session to the next. A kid who could barely stand on a board in November is doing kick turns by February. That kind of momentum carries itself.

Whatever you choose, the worst option is doing nothing. Kids need to move. They need to try things. Winter makes that harder but not impossible—Westchester has enough going on to keep them busy if you know where to take them.