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Backyard Fire Pit Night with the Kids: Smokeless Fire Pits, S'mores Gear & Cozy Fall Essentials for Texas Dads
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items When the Texas heat finally breaks and the evenings drop into the 50s, the best plan for a Friday night is right in the backyard: a good fire, a pile of s'mores, and the kids up a little past bedtime. These are my picks for making fire-pit night easy...
Sections
5
The Fire Pit (Smokeless, Budget & Burn-Ban Backup)
Get It Lit: Fire Starters, Kindling & Firewood Tools
S'mores & Kid Fun Around the Fire
Cozy Seats, Blankets, Lights & Bug Control
Fire Safety Every Dad Should Have Within Reach
The Fire Pit (Smokeless, Budget & Burn-Ban Backup)
Pick the pit that fits your yard and budget, from smokeless stainless steel to a propane bowl for burn-ban season.
A regular fire pit chases everybody around the circle with smoke and sends the kids to bed smelling like a campfire. The Bonfire's double-wall 304 stainless design feeds hot air back into the flame for a secondary burn, so once it's going the smoke m...
Solo Stove Bonfire w/Stand 19.5" Smokeless Fire Pit
Some smokeless pits nickel-and-dime you for the stand, cover, and ash tools. The TIKI comes with the stand, a removable ash pan, and a weather cover in one box, and its 25-inch, 16-gauge stainless bowl gives off about a 4-foot heat radius that a bigg...
TIKI 25-Inch Smokeless Outdoor Fire Pit
Not everybody wants to spend $300 to find out whether fire-pit night will become a family habit. The OutVue uses the same double-wall smokeless design in stainless steel for about a quarter of the price, and it comes with a tote bag that doubles as a...
OutVue 19.5" Stainless Steel Smokeless Fire Pit
Texas counties issue burn bans when it gets dry, and wood fires are often the first thing to go. Some county orders still allow gas fire pits, so check yours. When they're allowed, this 58,000-BTU propane bowl gives you a real flame with no sparks, n...
Outland Living 19" Portable Propane Fire Pit
Get It Lit: Fire Starters, Kindling & Firewood Tools
Light the fire on the first try and handle the wood without splinters, swinging an axe, or burned fingers.
Wadded-up newspaper burns out before the logs ever catch, and lighter fluid makes a fire-pit night smell like a gas station. Fatwood is resin-rich pine that lights even when it's damp, and two or three sticks get a fire going with no chemicals. A 10-...
Billy Buckskin 10lb Natural Fatwood Fire Starter
Store-bought firewood is often a little green or damp, and that's when fires smolder and smoke. Each of these wax-and-sawdust squares burns about six minutes, which is long enough to get stubborn kindling going, and they're odorless and water resista...
Melt Candle Fire Starter 160 Cubes for Grill
Matches blow out in a fall breeze, and a pocket lighter puts your knuckles right over the starter. The BIC's long metal wand keeps your hand well back from the pit, and it has a child-resistant mechanism, which matters when little hands are around. C...
BIC Classic Multi-purpose Lighter, 2-Pack
Splitting kindling with a hatchet in the dark, with kids running around, is how fire-pit nights end in urgent care. The Kindling Cracker is a cast-iron ring with a fixed blade inside: set a piece of wood in the 6.5-inch opening and tap it with a mall...
Kindling Cracker Firewood Splitter 6.5in
Carrying firewood in your arms means bark down your shirt, splinters, and three trips from the woodpile. This waxed-canvas carrier holds a full armload, has reinforced handles, and keeps bugs and debris off your clothes, so it's one trip from the sta...
INNO STAGE Waxed Canvas Firewood Carrier Bag
A stick from the yard is a lousy poker, and reaching in to move a log by hand is a bad idea. This set gives you a 32-inch poker for stirring coals and 26-inch tongs that grab and place logs with your hands well back from the heat, and the tongs fold ...
32" Fireplace Poker & 26" Tongs Tool Set
S'mores & Kid Fun Around the Fire
Kid-safe roasting sticks, an organized s'mores station, and the extras that make fire-pit night the highlight of their week.
Sharp-tipped skewers and short sticks are a bad mix with excited kids. These telescoping stainless sticks have dull tips and extend to 29.5 inches, so the kids stay back from the flame, and the rotating handle turns the marshmallow evenly instead of ...
Halloween 8 Pack 29.5in Smores Sticks
S'mores supplies scattered across a patio table means sticky chocolate on everything and graham crackers in the grass. This caddy holds the crackers, chocolate bars, and marshmallows in their own slots, has a removable tray for building s'mores, and ...
Mr. Bar-B-Q Hershey's Smores Caddy Tray
Kids get bored staring at an orange fire after about 20 minutes. Toss in an unopened packet and the flames turn blue, green, and purple for a good half hour, which is enough to buy you another round of s'mores and some extra time outside. Twenty-four...
Mystical Fire Color Changing Packets 24pk
Once it's dark, you want to be able to see the kids at a glance when they're running laps around the yard. Snap a glow necklace or bracelet on each kid and you can spot every one of them from your chair, and 100 sticks with connectors cover the whole...
PartySticks 100pk 8in Glow Sticks Halloween
Little kids in adult camp chairs tip over, slouch, or sit way too close to the pit. This kid-size chair has a low 10-inch seat, a steel frame with a lock so it won't fold up on a wiggly kid, and a mesh cup holder for their cocoa, and it folds into a ...
Coleman Kids Quad Chair
Cozy Seats, Blankets, Lights & Bug Control
The comfort gear that keeps everybody outside longer: a chair you'll want to sit in, a real blanket, good light, and no mosquitoes.
A sagging bag chair is fine for half an hour. After that, your back starts arguing. The Freestyle Rocker's spring-action frame rocks smoothly on grass or pavers, with solid armrests, a built-in drink holder, and real back support, and it still folds ...
GCI Outdoor Freestyle Rocker Camping Chair Indigo Blue
A couch throw soaks up dew from the grass in minutes and gets ruined by one stray spark. This blanket has a thick 350 GSM sherpa side and a waterproof, windproof backing, so it can go on damp ground or over laps on a cold night, and it's big enough f...
DOWN UNDER OUTDOORS Waterproof 350 GSM Fleece Blanket
A single porch light leaves the fire-pit corner of the yard pitch black, and that's where kids trip over chairs and lose shoes. These 48-foot commercial-grade string lights have 15 shatter-resistant 2W LED bulbs that stay cool, can be dimmed (dimmer ...
Brightech Ambience Pro LED Outdoor String Lights
Finding the s'mores box, the bathroom door, or a dropped binky in the dark always takes longer than it should. This lantern is a soft area light and a 1000-lumen spotlight in one, it's water resistant, and it recharges by USB. It can also top off you...
LE Rechargeable LED Lantern, 1000LM, IPX4 Waterproof
One rainy week in Central Texas and the mosquitoes are back, even in late October, and nobody wants to spray DEET on kids who are about to handle s'mores. The E55 makes a 20-foot repellent zone with no spray, flame, or scent. It runs about 5.5 hours ...
Thermacell E-ZoneGuard Patio Mosquito Repellent
Fire Safety Every Dad Should Have Within Reach
The extinguisher, fire blanket, spark screen, mat, and gloves that turn a scary moment into a non-event.
A garden hose is 50 feet away when an ember lands in dry grass, and a full-size extinguisher is usually locked in the kitchen pantry. This aerosol sprays for about 32 seconds on small wood, paper, fabric, grease, and electrical fires, and it's as eas...
First Alert EZ Fire Extinguishing Spray
A flaming marshmallow flung onto a sleeve or blanket needs to be smothered in seconds, not minutes. This fiberglass fire blanket pulls out of its pouch with two tabs and smothers small fires or wraps around a person, and unlike an extinguisher it lea...
FLASLD Emergency Fire Blanket 4x4 ft Fiberglass
Smokeless pits burn hot, and a popping log of cedar or oak can throw sparks well past the rim and onto dry Texas grass or kids' clothes. The Bonfire Shield is a two-piece 304 stainless mesh screen that sits on top of the 19.5-inch Bonfire. You can li...
Solo Stove Bonfire Shield Stainless Steel Spark Screen
A hot fire pit cooks a brown circle into St. Augustine and can scorch a wood deck or stain pavers, and stray embers do the same. This 40-inch mat is 6 mm thick with three layers: an aluminum-fiberglass top that reflects most of the heat, a fiberglass...
40" Round Fire Pit Mat - Heat Reflective, Fireproof, 3 Layer Protector
Repositioning a log, lifting a hot spark screen, or moving the pit's lid with bare hands or an oven mitt is how dads end up running their hands under the hose. These 16-inch leather gloves are rated to 662°F and cover your forearm, with enough dexter...
RAPICCA Fire Pit Gloves, 662°F Fireproof, 16in Grey