To be honest I am not the biggest fan of winter.  Indeed, I grew up in the midwest United States and because of this, I have been thrust into snowstorms and blizzards, and even ice storms.  It has indeed been a wild ride and beyond all, I have enjoyed using the experience to grow personally and emotionally.  There is nothing easy about the winter, but it does provide the possibility to have a whole lot of fun if you let it. Depending on what state you live in winter games may vary greatly.  On the west coast, winter games are filled with swimming in a warm ocean and playing volleyball on a beach.  But where I come from winter means lots and lots of snow.  The snow leads us to find ways to have fun when it is hard to go anywhere far or fast.  This means winter games tend to be done in the snow and close to home.  If you are lucky to live next to a hill then lots of fun times can be had very easily.  What has become a family passion is making sledding tools out of packaging supplies. So how do you take your regular household packaging supplies and make a winter wonderland tool?  Let’s start on that right now and how you can use the simple things in life to have an amazing time. 

Ok, let’s be honest, what you will really need is definitely a bunch of different kinds of cardboard.  If you are able to also get a specific type of cardboard then it will make things much easier.  What I am talking about is pizza boxes.  Pizza boxes are actually patented for being able to be moister resistant.  They are corrugated and have air pockets and are also pretty darn tough as well.  So if you can order a lot of pizza and save the boxes this is a great base for a winter sled.  You can take 4 or 5 boxes and even double stack them once you take the box apart.  I like to also use duct tape to put the boxes together. This helps with the water proofing.  

Now you may not be a big history buff, but believe it or not duct tape was actually created in World War 2 to keep ammo cans from getting water in them. So it is a great tape to use for putting boxes together and to help to waterproof them and seams.  Once you have the base put together it’s nice to build some sides to hold onto.  This can be done with regular cardboard, but you will want to put lots of them together to get something to grip onto.  You will also want it to be able to withstand being kicked or run into with boots.  It really is just part of walking up hills and sledding down them.  Lots of people end up kicking many things. 

With a little bit of work and a lot of guts, you are probably about ready to go.  So once you get it all taped together our family goes out on the hills.  It sure is fun to see how tough and how fast you can get your sled.  A pro tip is to ducktape the bottom of the sled for slick sledding because friction is a win.  Have fun and happy winter to you and your family.