What winter activities can seniors enjoy in January and February?

The weeks after Christmas are the hardest on any activity calendar. The decorations come down, families go home, the weather keeps people inside, and the afternoons are long. A good January and February plan doesn’t try to keep the holiday going. It gives each week one calm activity, a reason to talk, and one small party in the middle of February. This plan follows the January and February pages of our Activity Calendar for Senior Communities, where January is “Quiet starts and long afternoons”, with our winter games added for each week.

January and February at a glance

Dates are for 2027: New Year’s Day falls on a Friday, Groundhog Day on Tuesday, February 2, and Valentine’s Day on Sunday, February 14.

Every week also has a backup that needs no paper at all, for the day the printer jams and the room is already filling.

January, weeks 1 and 2: a quiet start

Start the year with a party that doesn’t need midnight. New Year’s Eve Find the Guest Bingo plays at a noon countdown on New Year’s Eve as well as late at night, or any day in the first week of January, and no square is about alcohol. Guests look for someone who “has held a sparkler” or “has done a big jigsaw”, and the Host List has a follow-up question for each of the 48 squares. For a seated room, play Hands Up: you read the squares, and nobody walks. There are 16 different cards, and for 24 guests you print each card three times.

The calendar’s own pick for the first week is quieter: gentle sudoku, one grid each, “the calmest start to a year: no talking required”. Gentle Sudoku has 60 of the fullest grids we make, with 26 pt digits, and two boxes under every puzzle, “solved” and “helped to finish”. Both count. A free two-level sudoku sample is on our free samples page.

In week 2, bring out Winter Word Search: 20 large print puzzles with 20 pt letters, 14 words each, and no word runs backwards. There isn’t a single Christmas page in it. Its nine-week planner gives each page a line to read aloud before the pens come out. For Under the Heavy Quilts: “How many quilts deep did January get at your house?”

Backups with no paper: “Whose walk did you clear besides your own?” and, from the calendar, “Name 3 things you would pack for a snowstorm.”

January, weeks 3 and 4: bingo and something cozy

Winter Picture Bingo is made for this stretch of the year: its 30 pictures are snow, warm clothes, animals at the feeder and things on the stove, with no Christmas picture at all, so it is as right in late February as on the first snow day. The caller says “SNOW ANGEL” twice and holds the picture up. On the 16 Large Print cards the words are 20.5 to 24 pt and four in a row wins; a first line comes after about 10 calls. There are 30 Classic cards as well, so up to 46 players each hold a different card.

For a quiet table the same week, the calendar suggests a word search about the past, because “January is the month people want to remember”. Our Nostalgia Word Search has pages like The Milkman’s Route and The Soda Counter.

The calendar plans the last week of January as a short session, “for a week when half the room has a cold”. Keep it to talk and a page or two of the winter word search: Baking Bread on a Snowy Day asks “Who got the warm heel of the loaf, and how?”

Backups with no paper: “Ask what a January payday used to buy.” And: “Read by a window or by a fire?”

February, weeks 5 and 6: sayings and a Valentine party

The calendar opens February with old sayings, “the fastest way to hear a room laugh”. Old Fashioned Sayings has 60 sayings on display cards at 76 pt or larger; you read the start twice and the room says the rest together. Save “March comes in like a lion…” for the end of the month. Our guide to the finish the phrase game has the rules and six sayings with their answers. Groundhog Day falls in this week, and the winter word search has a page for it, The Groundhog on the News: “Six more weeks: did anyone ever believe him?”

Week 6 is the party. Our Valentine Games Bundle has two games about friendship and kindness, with nothing about dating or romance, so it suits a room where not everyone has a valentine. As people arrive, they play Valentine Find the Guest Bingo, with squares like “has had a pen pal”. When the cookies come out, everyone sits down for Valentine Picture Bingo: you call “CUPCAKE” twice and hold the picture up. If the room wants more, play a blackout round and hand out the certificates.

For another afternoon that week, the calendar adds that “Valentine’s week rewards a game about the past”. Which Came First for Older Adults asks which of two things from everyday American life came first, answered with A and B paddles. See how to play Which Came First.

Backups with no paper: “Say half a proverb and let the room finish it.” And: “Which came first in your life: your first car or your first dance?”

February, weeks 7 and 8: towards the thaw

The calendar’s note for week 7: “animals carry a session when the weather does not”. Pet Lovers Word Search has 20 puzzles about cats, dogs and farm animals, each a small scene, such as The Sunbeam Nap and The Backyard Chickens. If the Valentine bingo went well, play it again: the pictures are cocoa, a mailbox and a teddy bear, not hearts alone.

Close the season with Easy Sudoku in pairs, one grid between two people, because, as the calendar puts it, “two heads on one grid is a conversation, not a test”. The last page of the winter word search is The Thaw at Last: “The first day you smelled the earth again.”

Backups with no paper: “Go round the room: every pet you have ever owned, by name.” And: “Twenty questions, one object in the room.”

Small groups, big rooms and one to one

The calendar’s guide to choosing for the room you actually have:

• Quiet room, low energy: word search or sudoku.
• Mixed room, visitors present: Which Came First or finish the phrase. “Both carry a visitor who has never been before.”
• A party: the New Year’s mingle bingo in January, the Valentine bundle in February.
• One to one, at a bedside: Name 3 or finish the phrase, one card at a time.
• A big room: winter picture bingo, with 46 different cards.

Printing for January and February

Print in December, before the holidays take over. Host pages, calling cards and display cards go into a binder once; player pages are printed per person. Picture bingo needs scissors for its 30 calling cards; the mingle bingos print whole. Every game prints in black ink on US Letter or A4. Print one page at Actual size (100%) first; our guide on printing at actual size covers every app.

The Activity Calendar for Senior Communities plans all 12 months, 48 weeks, with 7 one-page run sheets you can laminate, and its facility license covers one whole site with unlimited printing. The games are separate downloads. For the month before, see our December activities for seniors; for how to run each session, the weekly plan for activities for seniors. Browse all our winter and Valentine games.