Head, hands and feet

90% of the body heat goes out through your head, and if you'r feet are cold, you get cold all over. Seriously. It's very important to keep the feet and head warm, to keep the rest of you warm. Hands get cold very fast, and this is the place on the body you first get cold. Kids also use their hands in the snow, so mittons are a must.

Once again I'm going to mention this word; wool. Aspecially on hands and feet. The reason is, as mentioned before, because it keeps you warm when you get wet. Kids get very easily wet on hands and feet when playing in snow or rain. Even rain boots can't keep the water away from my boys' feet! I don't know how they do it.

 

Feet.
Always thin wool socks for inner layer.
For wet weather, we have dock boots. These are made of the same material as dry suits, and are flexible, waterproof and says to have a comfort temperature from +10 to -20 degrees celcius, which covers most of the norwegian winter. I usually put on an extra pair of thin wool socks when it gets minus degrees. 

My experience is that they are not soo good in cold weather, so we also use winter boots with thick, removeable wool lining. These keeps you warm through anyhing!

Or normal, insulated winter boots.

For mild, wet winters I would say get dock boots (if you can) or lined rain boots. If you can't get any of these, thick wool socks in normal rain boots will work.

Head.

I use wool hats with lining around the ears (often fleece or double layer of wool) to keep the wind out. Lindsay  

asked  me  how  thick wool hats I use for different temperatures.  I usually have thin, cotton hats for late spring and early fall,  and then thick the same thickness of wool after that (under zero?) .  Wool breathes...  

Hands.

We use home knittet wool mittens for "warmer" winter days (picture above).These are not wind proof, which is why we often use  knitted mittens that we throw in the washing machine, so they get thick and feltet (picture underneath). These are super warm, I love these.

For the kids I normally use wind proof/water resistant mittens with wool lining, that I buy. Or it's possible to use the home knitted mittens with thin wind proof and water resistant mittens over.

Lindsay also wondered how I keep the mittens on the kids. Short mittens,  like  the top two,  I stuff underneath the sleeves of the jacket \snowsuit.  The longer mittens,  like the ones at the bottom,  goes all the way up to the elbows and difficult to get off. The kids usually understands  very fast that they need to keep the mittens on in  order to stay warm  on  the hands.  My boys ask for mittens if they're not on when they go out. 

On a budget? 

Norwegians in general has a culture where people like to be outside, and the kids can stay outside for Hours and hours, out in the woods, on ski trips etc.. It's very important to us to have clothes to keep the kids warm for the whole time they are outside. In other contries people are not as often outside when it gets cold, and if they go outside, it's just for maybe an hour, and just staying outside the house. Then it is not so important to have all the best equipment, since you can just go inside if the kids get cold.

So, if you don't want to put so much money into the clothes, I'll give you som cheaper options. This is if you live in a place where winters are not so cold, plan on using the clothes for a short periode of time (on a vacation) or don't plan to stay out for a long periode of time.

 Cheap hats can be bought anywhere. Just be shure it is thick and somewhat wind proof around the ears.

 If the kids are playing in snow or water/wet sand, buy thick insulated mittons, that are waterresistant. These are way cheaper than the wool mittons. The downside is that you might need two pair, since these need to be changed when they get cold and wet. Once the hands get cold, the syntethic mittons won't warm up the hands when you put on the mittons, like wool does.

For feet, I would't recommend anything else than wool if it's cold. Wool socks are not suuper expensive, and cotton socks will not keep you warm at all. I think it's possible to buy thermo socks, but I have never tryed these.