Winter in Fairbanks is a minimum of six months long. That’s six months of snow on the ground and usually below freezing temperatures. My kids need to be outdoors every day; it’s extremely important to maintain their health, both physical and mental. Consequently my husband and I have spent a lot of time brainstorming ways to keep our kids warm during the winter so we all can enjoy being outside, doing chores, playing with animals, and having fun. Fairbanks is located at just below 65 degree latitude. Due to the high latitude Fairbanks has very little sunlight around the winter solstice, and temperatues can drop as low as -50° Fahrenheit. It’s not unusual to have a week or two straight, of -20° or below temperatures, so learning to dress warmly is a must.
Minimum Temperatures for Outdoor Playing
The cutoff for outdoor recess for kids in Fairbanks is -20°. And I think that’s a reasonable cutoff temperature, assuming your kids are dressed appropriatley. After -20° it’s very hard to keep the kids warm regardless of how much they are running around. Lucky for us, Fairbanks isn’t usually windy, except if you live on a ridge , like at our house, where wind is more frequent. I wouldn’t throw my kids outside to play at such cold temperatures (see below) if the wind was blowing steady and above 20° mph, so keep that in mind if you live in windy climate.
Now I aim to have my kids outside for a continous 45 minutes every day, at a minimum. If they can handle the cold longer, then great, bonus for all of us. So here’s my minimum temperature limits (in Fahrenheit) that my kids can play outside. Lower than the posted temperature I won’t make them to play outside. Also these temperatures assume that your kids are actively moving around every couple of minutes because no kid, no matter how bundled they are, are not going to be warm just sitting there.
- Ages 0-3: 0°. Do you know that infants have a larger amount of fat cells in their cheeks and you can actually freeze the fat cells. I know this because I did this to my oldest child when he was about a six months olds, taking him out in below 0 temperatures. Whoops! Don’t worry, there were no long lasting effects.
- Age 3: -10° is the minimum. Usually by about 3 years, kids can start telling you when they are cold, or their hands are cold, and it takes a lot of the guess work out of dressing them and the constant fear that they are cold.
- Age 4: -15° depending upon the kid
- Age 5-7: -25°, and that’s pushing it. At -25° they don’t always make it outside the whole 45 minutes unless they are running around constantly.
Clothes by Age and Temperature
Ok, the next question is what to dress your kids in. From age 3 on up and down to about 0°, I dress my kids in the same thing every time and they seem to do fine. Below 0° temperatures start requiring some serious layers. Here’s my list of clothing requirements by temperature and age.
Above 0° temperatures:
- Ages 0-2: T-shirt or onesie, long sleeve shirt or sweatshirt, pants, socks, snowsuit, a warm hat that covers the ears, mittens, and booties. If your child is being carried in a backpack, sling, or in a sled, wrap a warm blanket around everything but their head and tuck in the ends of the blanket.
- Age 3+: T-shirt, sweatshirt, pants, and socks. Snowsuit or snowpants, a warm fluffy coat, hat that covers the ears, mittens are warmest but gloves will do, and snowboots with felt liners.
Below 0° temperatures:
- Age 0-3: Honestly I think it’s too cold for kids under 3 years of age to be outside for any length of time. They can’t tell you if they are cold, and again think, frozen fat cheeks. Unless we were going from the car to the house or something similar, by kids didn’t go outside to play.
- Age 3+: This is where we start layering clothes. You can always take clothes off but since getting snow clothes on a kid is a serious commitement in time, just layer them up to start with.
- 0° to -15°: Add a vest under a coat, or a coat over a snowsuit in addition to their normal gear listed above.
- -15° and colder: Add a neck gaitor, scarf, or balaklava, a second pair of pants or long johns with pant, and a warm sweater or two sweatshirts in addition to everything listed above.
What to Wear in the Car
Car clothing is what you wear when you are going to school or running errands around town, where you get out of the car and go straight into a store. If we are actually going somewhere to play in the snow then I dress them like I described above. And maybe it’s just my car, but my car, even after warming up for 10 minutes, and then going continously for 30 minutes, is just never warm unless it is above 0°. Never.
- Age 0-3:
- 40° to 20°: I make my babies and toddlers wear hat, booties or boots, and a jacket . If I can keep mittens on them even better. I usually tuck a blanket around them.
- 20° to colder: They get full regalia: snowsuit, boots or booties, mittens, hat, and blanket tucked around them. For infants they even make a handy dandy fleece zipper for over the carseat, check it out here.
- If your child is being potty trained before 3 than I suggest you move to the next age category because snowsuits are extremely inconvenient to potty train with.
- Age 3+:
- Standard clothes for my kids from potty training on up is, ‘hat, coat, boots’. It’s my normal ‘get out the door’ command for my kids, ‘hat, coat’ boots’. I make them put on thin gloves if it’s below -20°, even if its just thin, stretch gloves. Normally they just pull their gloves off anyways as soon as they hit the car, to play with a toy or read a book, so I don’t worry about it too much. They haven’t lost a finger yet, and they know they are not supposed to touch anything metal with bare hands. I also keep a lap blanket for each kid in the car all winter. We use them on a daily basis from 0° on down.
Some Specifics on Clothes
- General Advice: Buy all your clothes so kids can wear them at least two years. For example if your kid is a size 4/5 buy them a 6/7 at the minimum. Buy quality enough that they will last two years but not so expensive that if your kid loses their gear, or rips a whole in it, it’s a financial losss. Especially for the smaller sizes, I often find used coats, snowsuits, boots, sometimes snowpants, hats, and gloves at a second hand kids store. They are reasonably priced and in good condition.
- Boots: Babies can get away with booties over their socks and or snow suits. But once a kid starts spending serious time walking outside, buy them some good boots. Often you can find them used since kids feet grow so fast. Good boots have a rubber foot and wool felt liner in them. That way kids can wear their boots in 35° above in slushy snow to -25°. Sorel, Kamik, and Columbia all make nice wool lined kids boots. And the boots are sturdy enough to last through 3-4 kids. I know because I pass the boots through all three of my kids and then onto friends.
- Coats: Fleece coats don’t work well below 40° or in snow, they get wet easily and don’t block the wind. You want to find the fluffiest warmest coat you can that has a polyester or similar outer shell that will cut the wind and shed the moisture. Down coats are warmer than fake down, but personally my kids continously punch holes in their down coats (sticks maybe?) which require daily sewing so the feathers don’t fall out, so I don’t reccommend them for younger kids. Here is my favortie kind that my daughter wears. It’s sturdy, warm, and has stitch you can remove to make the sleeves longer as they grow.
- Gloves: Those thin little stretchy gloves you can buy in the checkout line, in any store, anywhere, are pretty much worthless unless you are in a heated car. You don’t need top-of-the-line gloves and mittens for your kids because they are just going to lose them at school. So buy some mid-line, insulated, ski gloves, that repel water and are pretty warm. I spend about $15-$20 a pair for my kids and make sure they each have two pairs in case they get wet or lost.
- Snowpants: I have not figured out the best strategy for these. My kids started wearing them when they were about 5. I bought some with bibs so they stay up and don’t get snow down them when my kids crash on the sled. But my kids trash their pants. I’m constantly sewing split seams and holes in their pants. I’m thinking of buying some carharts inslulated overalls. They’re spendy but I won’t spend every night sewing holes and I can pass them along to the next kid instead of buying new every year. I do like snow pants with a sticky, elasticized rubber gasket along the inside of the leg. It keeps the kids from getting snow down their boots, which would ultimately end up my kids having cold, wet feet. No good!
- Snowsuits: They are awesome unless you are potty training, then they are a nightmare. I am an Olympic champion on removing snowsuits just enough and fast enought for my then three year olds could go the bathroom. Snowsuits for toddlers on up are often thin so you might need to layer them with other coats.
So there you have it. That’s how I keep my kids warm throughout the winter. This includes ice fishing, sledding, going for walks, chores, errands, and just getting around from day to day. Next year I’m going to teach them how to cross country ski so I’ll let you know what I dress them for that. Probably the same. Please share your tricks and tips for keeping your kids warm. Have a great winter!
