How to Romanticize Your Life This Winter, in & around Richmond
In other words, here’s an ~elevated~ take on your typical winter bucket list.
Take a self-guided hot chocolate tour around the city. If you’ve gotten your holiday fill of peppermint-, gingerbread-, and eggnog-flavored coffee drinks, switch it up with some cocoa this season. Cameo Cakery & Cafe, Can Can Brasserie, The Smoky Mug, and Stir Crazy Cafe each have some delish options for starters.
Host a game night at your cozy abode. Visit One Eyed Jacques, collect one or more of the spot’s many options, then tell the crew to be right over.
Head out on a day trip for some snow sports. Massanutten is just a couple hours away and offers skiing, snowboarding, and tubing — plus lots of other activities if you want to make an extended trip of it.
Schedule an indoor sweat sesh at a boutique-style gym. Don’t let the cold deter you from working on your fitness. Host of Sparrows Aerial Circus, Row House, and BOHO Studios each offer unique ways to keep your bod warm.
Book an indoor float appointment. Vitality Float Spa is one of our favorite ways to unwind, and stay toasty, in the colder months. Snag a float room or float pod, and within minutes, you’ll feel those winter stresses, well, float away.
Spend some time giving back. This is an especially great time to offer up a little extra TLC to our neighbors in need, and we’ve got some recs for volunteer organizations to work with here and here. The READ Center and Tablespoons Bakery are two we especially love.
Make a signature cocktail at home. Cirrus Vodka has 10 to-go cocktail kits to shop for your home bar, and Crescent Simples has many simple syrups to collect and try in your non-alcoholic, at-home concoctions if that’s your pref.
Check some books off your TBR list. We’re always trying to read more each year, and our very own book club helps make it happen. Join us! And if our monthly pick isn’t your style, come out anyway — we’re really just there to meet other Richmonders.
Go ice skating. Stony Point Fashion Park, Hopewell Ice Skating Rink, and Kings Dominion each offer outdoor skating through the beginning of January. But if you want to keep ~The Rink at Rockefeller Center vibe~ alive all season long, you can visit Richmond Ice Zone and SkateNation Plus.
Do some indoor gaming. The Park offers mini golf, duckpin bowling, virtual golf, music bingo, and karaoke, and River City Roll has boutique bowling, live music, and a seasonal menu. You could be at either place all winter, truly.
Go for a Polar Plunge. As they say, if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em. The Richmond Polar Plunge happened in early December, but if you missed your chance, you can partake just an hour down the road in Virginia Beach on February 7 and 8. The event supports Special Olympics Virginia to boot.
Join an arts-and-crafts class. There’s no shortage of opps in this department when it comes to Richmond, but Visual Arts Center of Richmond, Hand/Thrown, and ScrapRVA have the makings of your next masterpiece.
Take the train somewhere. Drive about 90 minutes west and hop aboard the Virginia Scenic Railway. Depending on which route you choose, you’ll roll through the Shenandoah Valley or the Blue Ridge Tunnel. But we’re romanticizing here; maybe choose to roll through both?
Go stargazing. According to The Weather Channel, winter is the best time for stargazing, given its clearer skies. According to us, these are some of the best spots for stargazing around the city.
Catch a movie. The new season of The White Lotus starts mid-February, which means you’ve got plenty of time to tackle the rest of your watchlist at The Byrd or CinéBistro.
Send snail mail to your loved ones. Remember when you’d bring Valentines to your classmates in grade school? This is like that, but you don’t have to include conversation hearts. (Although, we insist the large ones *do* taste good.) Check out The Wild Wander, Mongrel, and Maven Theory to collect some cutie cards.
Update your skincare routine. This time of year, our skin gets SO dry. Maven Made’s Brown Sugar Scrub and Every Body Oil bring some moisture back to the situation.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Kelsey is RVAx co-owner and editor-in-chief. She moved to Richmond in 2018, settling(ish) first in Scott's Addition, then in Church Hill, before finding a suburban spot that gives her and her family just a bit more room to grow. You can usually find her reading yet another thriller or rewatching whatever Friends episode she rewatched least recently.
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