Snow day superstitions

The night before a big storm, lots of kids try the same strange rituals to "make" a snow day. Here are the classic ones, why people do them, and what actually decides whether school closes.

By the Snow Day Calculator team. Published 29 October 2026.

10 snow day rituals kids swear by

1. Sleep with a spoon under your pillow. The most famous one. Some families say the spoon has to face up, others say it must be a big serving spoon. Nobody agrees, which is part of the fun.
2. Wear your pajamas inside out. Often done together with the spoon. The extra-serious version is inside out and backwards.
3. Flush ice cubes down the toilet. Usually one cube for each inch of snow you want. Some say you need exactly the number of snow days you are hoping for.
4. Put a white crayon in the freezer. White for snow, cold for winter. A spoon in the freezer is the other common choice.
5. Do a snow dance. Any dance counts, as long as everyone does it together, ideally outside right before bed.
6. Throw ice cubes into the yard. A "gift" to the weather, so it sends more back.
7. Brush your teeth with the other hand. Doing an everyday thing "backwards" shows up in many versions of the tradition.
8. Sleep the wrong way round. Head at the foot of the bed. It goes well with the inside-out pajamas.
9. Run around the kitchen table. Some families say laps around the table, often a set number of times.
10. Leave your homework undone. The riskiest one on the list. If school opens, the homework is still due.

Every family and every school seems to have its own version, and the rules change from house to house. That is a big part of the appeal: it is a shared, silly thing to do on a night full of hope.

Do snow day superstitions work?

No. A spoon cannot move a storm, and there is no study showing that any of these rituals changes the weather. What they do give you is something fun to do while you wait, and a story to tell if the snow does come.

There is one small truth inside them: people usually start the rituals when snow is already in the forecast. So "it worked" quite often, simply because the storm was coming anyway.

Where do these superstitions come from?

No one knows exactly. They are folk traditions passed between kids, parents and teachers, and more recently through social media. Turning things "inside out" or "backwards" to change your luck is an old idea in many cultures, and the freezer and ice cube rituals are a simple way of "asking for cold".

How to get a snow day (the real way)

You cannot make it snow, but you can know early. A school district usually decides between about 4 and 6 am, after checking the roads. These are the things that matter most:

• Snow overnight and before buses leave. Snow falling between 4 and 8 am is the hardest to clear.
• Ice. A thin layer of freezing rain can close schools faster than several inches of snow.
• Extreme cold. In cold states, very low wind chill can close schools on its own.
• How used to snow your area is. Two inches can close schools in the South, while snow belt districts stay open through much more.

So the best "ritual" is to check the forecast the evening before. Our free snow day calculator turns the National Weather Service forecast into a closure chance and a delay chance for your ZIP code, and our method page explains exactly how.

A fair warning

Rituals are fun; skipped homework and late nights are not. Do the spoon, wear the pajamas, and still get your bag ready. Only your school district can call a snow day, so check its announcements in the morning.