Fall is finally here and it’s time to celebrate! While we’re not quite to spooky season, there are plenty of fun days and holidays in September that are worth having fun with!
Fun Holidays in September
I’m a little biased because my birthday is in September, but it’s my personal favorite month of the year. The weather is beautiful, the kids are back in school so things settle back into a routine, and it’s kind of that lull month before the craziness of the holidays take over.
It’s the perfect month for some family fun, girls nights, or fall parties. And I’ve put together a huge list of unique and fun holidays in September plus some other fun reasons to celebrate like movie releases that are the perfect excuse to get together.
Oh and one thing to note – I know not every one of these holidays and activities is going to work for all of you. These are just meant to be ideas for various lifestyles and types of families and people.
September 1 – American Chess Day
Play chess. Learn how to play chess. Watch a movie or TV series featuring Chess like The Queen’s Gambit. Chess is one of those games I’ve never learned how to play (crazy, I know) and I think I’m going to change that this year on September 1st!
September 2 – National Live Fearless Day
This is one of my favorite days of the entire month. It’s all about living a bold life and facing your fears.
Plan a girls night where everyone has to face one of their fears. It could be as simple as going to a haunted house or indoor skydiving. Or getting up on stage and singing karaoke. Or you could make it even simpler and have everyone come over and do something that they’ve just been putting off, might not be something they’re scared to do but still avoiding.
This one’s great to do with your family too, especially since kids often have more recognizable fears than adults. Or just do this one on your own and be brave all day long! You could even do something from your fall bucket list if it’s something you wouldn’t normally do.
September 3 – Better Breakfast Month
There’s really not a lot happening on September 3rd so it sounds like a great day to embrace breakfast month! Think mini pancakes for breakfast and sausage breakfast casserole with tropical fruit salad for dinner (or whatever your family loves the most).
Also sounds like a great reason to invite friends to meet up for breakfast instead of a dinner or dessert girls night. Or just use the day to come up with breakfast ideas for yourself to enjoy breakfast breakfast month all long!
September 4 – National Eat An Extra Dessert Day
A day just for eating extra dessert? Go out to eat with your friends or family and order an extra dessert!
Or do a dessert swap and have everyone bring their favorite dessert to share with enough that you can take some home (great for Labor Day cookout desserts). Or just make your favorite dessert and take them to friends to share!
If you need desserts that work well for this, these are some of our favorites:
- Homemade brownies (so much better than the box mix)
September 5 – National Play Outside Day
Plan a family field day and invite families over to play all sorts of fun field day games! This falls on a Saturday this year, so it’s the perfect opportunity for a field day or family Olympics! Any of these outdoor games or honestly with the current temps, even these water games, would work!
Or meet up with friends and family to explore a new park, trail, or other outdoor play space. Playing can mean whatever you want it to be as long as you’re outside!
September 6 – National Read a Book Day
This one should be easy, literally just read something that you’ll enjoy. You could read on your own or read something together as family and do a fun reading activity inspired by the book after!
If you need some inspiration, these are the books currently on my book list!
September 7 – Labor Day
Take a day off from work and celebrate Labor Day with your family and friends. Host a barbecue or pool party or just a lazy day where you do no labor at all.
September 8 – National Ants on a Log Day
Who doesn’t want to eat classic kid snacks all day? Homemade pop tarts for breakfast, pigs in a blanket for lunch, and homemade Chick Fil-A chicken nuggets for dinner!
And of course don’t forget to make class ants on a log for an afternoon snack.
September 9 – International Soduku Day
Grab a puzzle book or an app and do a soduku puzzle! If you’re not in soduku, you can do any other sort of word or number puzzle to celebrate too!
If you need a puzzle book recommendation, I love this New York Times one and and this boost your brain health one!
September 10 – National Swap Ideas Day
This sounds like the perfect excuse to have a girls night! Choose some sort of swap you want to do and invite everyone to bring their stuff and swap.
You could do a soup swap (this butternut squash soup is great), an old sweater swap, a summer stuff swap, a Halloween decor swap, or really anything you want. Combine the swap with a rewatch of Practical Magic for the perfect spooky season night!
September 11 – Practical Magic 2 Release
Go see the movie of course! Make these witch hat cookies to enjoy before or after.
September 12 – National Video Games Day
Have a video game tournament with your own kids at home. Choose games that you can all play together like Mario Party or with younger kids, Nex Playground is so fun! You could even do themed treats like we did for our Super Mario party.
Or if you want to get out of the house, head to a local arcade or somewhere like Dave and Buster’s and just play the video games (often cheaper that way).
Or if you don’t want to actually play video games, you could always a do a video game themed movie night. Think Ready Player One, Minecraft Movie, or the Super Mario movie!
September 13 – National Grandparents Day
I probably don’t need to give you ideas for this one. Spend it talking to or spending time with your grandparents or your kids grandparents. You could make something for them, ask them some of these family interview questions, or even just invite them over to do something they enjoy together.
September 14 – National Parents Day off
This might be my second favorite day of the month. Okay, maybe third since my birthday is in September. Take the day off from parenting duties as much as possible. Organize rides for your kids, get takeout for dinner, give them free time to do what they want while you do what you want. We all deserve a day off so take it on Sept 14th!
September 15 – International Dot Day
I absolutely love this day. It’s all about the book called The Dot, basically a book about creativity and starting small when you don’t feel like you’re creative. And now there’s a whole day and movement dedicated to it.
Anyway, there are plenty of ways you can celebrate. Do something creative, invite friends over to do whatever art or craft project you want. Eat either gummy Dots or Dots pretzels, do dot to do activities, do dot coloring (these are so fun), play this Dots game.
This one can be as small as you want it to be or let your creativity stretch and make it into something really fun!
September 16 – National Choose Your Chocolate Day
Another day all about dessert! Meet up with friends to get chocolate fondue or do your own fondue at home!
Or do a chocolate hop in your local community and try to find the best types of chocolate. Or have everyone come over and bring something chocolate to share and give out a prize (chocolate of course) for the winner! I’d bring this frozen hot chocolate or these chocolate lava cakes of course!
If you just want to do something simple at home, you could do a chocolate tasting activity with your own family. Pick up a bunch, take the labels off, and see which one people enjoy the most!
September 17 – International Country Music Day
Have a country music dance party with some of the classic greats like Dolly Parton, Shania Twain, and Tim McGraw. Meet up with friends to go country line dancing. Or just put on a country music playlist to enjoy the day without a planned celebration!
September 18 – Rice Krispies Treat Day
Make these rice krispie treats of course. That’s it, that’s the entire celebration. It’s good enough, I promise.
September 19 – Talk Like a Pirate Day
Go to Long John’s Silver and talk like a pirate to get a free piece of fish or chicken (confirm your local one is participating before going).
Have a pirate party using any of these pirate party ideas (lots of activities and food).
Have a movie night and watch Pirates of the Caribbean complete with gold chocolate coins and candy necklaces or rings and of course lots of pirate lingo!
If you live somewhere that offers them, it’d be fun to do a pirate cruise too!
September 20 – Wife Appreciation Day
If you’re not a wife or don’t have a wife to appreciate, it’s also National Pepperoni Pizza Day and a great time to enjoy a pizza night!
But I’m all about wife appreciation day because we all know that wives don’t get appreciated for everything they do enough. So send this to whoever you want to appreciate you and tell them exactly what would make you feel appreciated!
Think getting to go to a girls night with other wives without feeling guilty, not being in charge of dinner for the night, and little trinkets or gifts to show appreciation. I know I always just like being though of!
September 21 – Miniature Golf Day
Go miniature golfing with your family or friends! Watch a movie or TV show with miniature golf like Happy Gilmore or HoleyMoley or even the Lego Masters Mini golf episode (Season 3, Episode 8).
Or go even more adventurous and have everyone have to create their own miniature golf hole as a competition. Vote on whose is best and give out a pass to a local mini golf place for the winner!
September 22 – National Girls Night
It’s literally a night dedicated to girls night. Plan one. If you need ideas, these are some of my favorites:
- Gilmore Girls fall episode watch night (with Gilmore Girls bingo)
September 23 – The Love Hypothesis Release
If you haven’t read the book, might want to read it but maybe not. Watch the movie with your girlfriends or just on your own! It would be fun to do some sort of science themed snacks like we did for our Big Hero 6 party but could really just do any girls night snacks instead.
September 24 – National Punctuation Day
As an English major, I had to include this one. Just don’t judge my grammar and punctuation in my writing, this isn’t an English paper.
This one could be just for you – find errors in newspapers, signs, and people’s posts. Correct them in your brain and just laugh. You could listen to Weird Al’s song Word Crimes or watch videos on punctuation with your kids to spread the word on proper punctuation.
You could even make it fun – turn it into a scavenger hunt with your kids, a point for every punctuation error they can find!
September 25 – National Daughter’s Day
I was going to put my birthday here but figured not everyone wants to celebrate that. Instead celebrate all of the daughter’s in your life, especially the eldest daughters that need a little extra celebrating!
Go on a mommy and daughter date. Call your daughter or do something special for her.
September 26 – National Johnny Appleseed Day
I’m a huge fan of enjoying all things apples in September and Johnny Appleseed Day seems like a great time for it!
You could host an entire apple party complete with a caramel apple bar, an apple cider mocktail, and some of these fun fall games like apple stacking.
Or it’s a Saturday so the perfect day to head to an apple orchard to do a little apple picking. Or a pumpkin patch that has apple cider donuts or fresh apple cider!
Or you could even make your own apple treats at home like apple monkey bread or apple pie cups if you want something simple!
September 27 – World Tourism Day
Be a tourist in your own town or take the advantage of this falling on a weekend to plan a quick trip to somewhere you haven’t been that’s close enough to drive!
Or spend the day learning about places you might want to go in the future. Check out tourism board websites to find unique things to do and places to visit with your family or friends. Even better if you actually plan the trip! Or you could read my travel posts like my Gatlinburg things to do list to plan your trip!
September 28 – National Family Day
Spend the day with family doing whatever you want. It’s a school day so if you have kids maybe just take the evening off from other things and spend it playing any of these family board games or watching a movie or doing something intentional together.
September 29 – National Silent E Day
This one is a little silly, but I like silly! Eat only foods that have a silent e in them like:
- Dates – bacon wrapped dates are a great appetizer
- Rice – this ham fried rice is delicious and a quick dinner!
- Cake – try this Snickers poke cake.
- Limeade – something different than the typical homemade lemonade!
And do only things that have a silent E if you want something to do as well. Any of these activities would be great:
- Game – pick one of these popular board games or your favorites to try!
- Dance – have a dance party, this New Year’s Eve playlist has tons of popular songs from the year!
- Freeze – play freeze tag or make something you have to freeze together like this birthday cake ice cream!
- Hide – play hide and seek or do a scavenger hunt where you hide things to find!
- Breathe – try some sort of family yoga or meditation that focuses on breathing!
September 30 – International Podcast Day
Listen to your favorite podcast! Volunteer to be a guest on a podcast if you know somewhere who does them. You could even listen to a podcast together as a family, there are plenty of ones that have things like mysteries or stories you can enjoy together!
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