sledding in fairfield

As the flurries fly and the fluffy stuff covers our lawns, cars, and roads, the anticipation builds in excited children. Sometimes the time we spend with our families includes time-honored traditions passed down through the generations—like sledding. 

Photo Cred: Paola Benedetto

Moms and dads take their kids to the same places they frequented on snowy afternoons as children, bundled up, sled in hand. Enter the moment that father and son stand for the first time at the foot of a hill made for sledding. Feel the frosty air on your cheeks, and know how much it means to share a time-honored tradition in your home town with your kin. Imagine the whirling excitement in the child’s mind as they see others speeding down the hill, and again as they stand at the top about to launch for the first time as their father had at the same age, in the same town. This is Fairfield. It’s about family—the foundation to a good childhood. And, just pure fun. 

Standing at the top of a steep sledding hill for the first time as a father rather than a sledder is Rory Hauser, holding his son, Ryan’s sled. “Can I go from the top, dad?” asks Hauser’s son, age five. “Okay, buddy, ready!” replies Hauser. As he lets go, a shriek of pure joy comes out of the boy, who sails over the snow and across the field below. This is the same hill Hauser spent his entire childhood sledding down each time snow fell. Like many of Fairfield’s residents, raising a family in their hometown with heartfelt nostalgia. 

Crisp air leads bundled-up kids through quaint Fairfield neighborhoods and up snow-covered hills each winter. Exhausted children trek back up the hill over and over for another fast ride back down. Hot chocolate beckons them home when little legs can’t seem to make it back to the top even one more time. It’s a fond memory most of us reflect upon with warm hearts and cold noses as we watch the kids sled, some of us joining in, only to realize we don’t want to walk back up too many times. 

I’m there too, with my niece, a first-time sledder at age seven. She’s a bit nervous and asks to start from the middle of the hill to avoid getting too much speed. Her pink ski jacket, hat, and mittens match her rosy cheeks and the tip of her little nose. She sits in her sled boots first aimed down the hill, contemplating whether this is “really such a good idea.” Before she knows it, my wife, her aunt, lets go of the sled and we watch her slowly glide down the hill, screaming, “I wasn’t ready!” and suddenly stopping. Soon enough, she’s ready for the top of the hill and racing back up in excitement. After hours in the cold, she reluctantly agrees to go back home for some hot chocolate and cookies—but I have to pull her tired little body in her sled through the snow the whole way. Occasionally I speed up to a run and launch the sled of small bumps in the terrain, causing her to laugh uncontrollably. “It’s worth it,” I think to myself, as I try to catch my breath and regain feeling in my face. 

Each time it snows, toboggans, plastic saucers, snow tubes, and plastic sleds shaped like shallow bathtubs race down the hill trailed by the sound of childhood excitement. It’s a right of passage to climb that hill as many times as your little legs will carry you. Every footprint in the snow welcomes in the tradition for the next generation to carry on, as parents stand at the top, proudly watching on and reminiscing about their childhood snowy adventures. 

Check out these top Fairfield sledding spots ranked by Fairfield Moms Network — and let us know some of your favorite spots!