Grab your sled and get out the door already.

Winter is fast approaching, and if you’ve been paying attention you may have noticed that the temperature outside has dropped to something near “Why can’t I feel my feet?” levels. That can only mean one thing: Snow will be here soon. That also means that your kids (and hopefully yourself) will be outside playing in the snow rather than situated in front of a TV screen. I’m all for video games, but when there’s snow, dang it, there is playing to be done!

Now, with snow you get the inevitable snowball fight. It’s important for kids to be prepared to defend themselves at a moment’s notice from balls of compacted frozen water being hurled from any and all directions.

Luckily it isn’t difficult to create your own snowball, but might I suggest an alternative that could possibly be considered cheating? Try out the Snow Baller , a tool used for making perfect snowballs and then launching them greater distances than your puny arm can muster alone. Plus, no frozen hands, so when your opponents are losing fingers from frostbite, you’re still raining frosty death upon them from a safe distance.

Even better though: The Snowball Blaster! Make three snowballs at once and fire it with lethal accuracy. You won’t have any friends left once you’re done, but who needs friends when you have a snowball gun?

Who needs friends when you've got one of these?

If war isn’t something you find particularly engaging, why not sled down a hill or two? There are tons of options for how best to coast along the top of a snowy incline, with standard sleds, snow discs, or snow tubes. There’s an item for just about anyone’s monetary needs here, so pay attention. The classic wooden sleds with steel runners will run you between $70 and $90, but sometimes you can’t beat a classic.

However, no one said you needed to be fancy. Do you have a shovel? Sit on the shovel part and away you go. Then again, if you’d rather not go too cheap but still want a real item with the purpose of sledding on snow, there’s always a handy snow disc , which range from $5 to $20 depending on size and brand stickers. Pretty much anything with a smooth surface can be converted into a makeshift sled, so the sky’s the limit (or should I say, the “ski’s” the limit? No, I shouldn’t).

See, pretty simple design to replicate.

All of this sledding is great, but what if you would rather be on a motorcycle? Okay, kids shouldn’t ride around on motorcycles, least of all when there is snow and ice everywhere, but low and behold, Wham-O, the company behind most of the items on this list, have also developed something called the Snow Hog , a thing that looks somewhat like a motorcycle sled. Honestly, if I were still a kid (which I am), I’d want to have one of these. The deluxe model will only...