Seasonal BINGO (Fall 2024 - Summer 2025)
The goal was to engage more in seasonal activities and get at least one BINGO (4 activities), and I'm calling it a success for each season. The bingo card not only had me doing more than I might have, but it is also a useful tool to help observe my patterns in energy levels throughout the year.
Highlights
Fall: 4 BINGO wins (completed 13 activities)
- Watched the Terrifier movies and gave myself horrible nightmares for weeks (I still sometimes think of that dismembered girl in bed like an earworm song stuck in my head)
- Recorded lots of videos/took lots of photos of falling leaves
- Went to a pumpkin patch with friends and now a picture of me exists with a backwards baseball cap holding one baby in each arm
- Made pumpkin soup
- Made gluten-free soul cakes (shortbread cookies with cranberry, basically)
Winter: 1 win (completed 8 activities)
- Spent solstice in Phoenix, AZ, with family, and we hung some string lights for festive cheer in the Airbnb
- Watched the New Year's Eve celebrations around the world
Spring: 2 wins (completed 10 activities)
- Had a really lovely spring camping trip among dandelions
- Constructed some new LEGO flowers for my home
- Went to the Japanese Street Festival for food and fun with friends!
- Tried catnip bubbles with Zenny (she didn't really get it)
- Did more gender exploration and shared my thoughts
Summer: 2 wins (completed 10 activities)
- Played with Sculpey to make a little frog on a mushroom (his name is William Fischer Frog)
- Took tons of photos of flowers and trees and learned what they were
- Sat and watched many sunsets, some more gorgeous than others but all a good time
- Went out for ice cream with the family at Outer Banks on our yearly beach trip
Activities
You'll find a list of the activities I had on my boards here for inspiration, but you can also do a Google search for [season] BINGO and get lots of ideas there. These are in addition to my three placeholder activities (send seasonal mail or postcards, play/be seasonally creative, and read a book related to that season or themes/holidays in it).
Fall Activities
Wear plaid. Carve a Jack-o-Lantern. Go camping. Watch new-to-me spooky movies. Watch the leaves fall. Make pumpkin bread. Make soup. Read ghost stories. Make chili. Go to a pumpkin patch. Go apple picking. Give thanks! Learn about something new about the season. Make soul cakes.
Winter Activities
Set the mood with candles. Celebrate Chinese New Year. Put up string lights. Watch holiday romances. Wear sweaters! Go on a walk in DC. Celebrate New Year's Eve. Do seasonal baking. Celebrate Yule. Build a blanket fort. Make gingerbread cookies. Make and hang paper snowflakes. Have a spa night. Enjoy some hot cocoa with marshmallows.
Spring Activities
Go camping. Take a long walk. Appreciate nature and do something with flowers. Learn about Asian-Pacific Heritage. Go birdwatching. Engage in cherry blossom season. Spring cleaning! Have a picnic. Go to the library. Improve my home care routines. Celebrate Arbor Day. Celebrate PRIDE! Learn about history and experience for Black Americans for Juneteenth. Play with bubbles.
Summer Activities
Go to the beach. Eat a hot dog. Play with sidewalk chalk. Take a nature walk. Watch the sunset. Read some ghost stories. Go see live music. Celebrate a National Day. Go swimming. Eat a whole pizza. Unplug for a full week (except for work). Go exploring. Watch some fireworks. Eat an ice cream cone.
Make your own BINGO cards
Before starting, I did a bit of prep work to figure out how and why.
Decide the number of items you want to make a BINGO to decide how big to make your board.
Keep in mind you'll have to complete at least one row to get a BINGO. Don't over-promise yourself to completing 8 activities for a BINGO unless you have that kind of energy level or time. I went low (4x4) because a) my journal is small and b) I am a low energy person.
Also keep in mind that you'll need to find as many unique activities, as you have squares on your board. I liked 4x4 because it eliminated the "free space" option and meant I only had to figure out 16 activities. Even as a low energy person, that was a LOT of stuff to choose from.
Since I got rid of the "free space," I added a few activities that I do throughout the year anyway (sending mail, making art, reading), except the activity required a seasonal edge for me to fulfill it.
Make a goal to complete for each card.
I had a low pressure goal of 1 BINGO per season. My goal was to engage in seasonal activities more often, not force myself to do something every single day. Having this low goal meant I made multiple BINGOs per season and that then made me feel really proud and accomplished! But that was an unintended side effect.
I did this next part before each season, but you could do it at the top of the year for all seasons if you wanted to.
Compile a list of activities to fill into the board.
I recommend doing this separately and then adding them to the board, in case you mess up or end up with too many and need to prioritize, but if you want to live dangerously feel free to fill out the board as you go. I did Google searches to look at seasonal activities near me, view other people's seasonal BINGO cards, and reached into the depths of memory to figure out things I used to do.
My list encompasses holidays, moods, creativity, education, and seasonal themes.
Fill out the card.
My card was actually quite small so instead of the full prompt, each box contains a word or two and an image to represent it. You can do what you want.
Also decorate the page! Get some washi and stickers out!
As the seasons progress, do the things! For my small board, I tried to figure out how to fit an activity into my life once every few weeks. If you have more activities/longer BINGOs, you might want to think about it more frequently than that.
Complete activities and write about them.
Once I completed each item, I colored in the box and added a journal entry about what I did. The journal entry has photos, souveniers, and doodles, as well as a description of what I did, how it brought me closer to the season, and how I felt doing it / after doing it.