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There are cases of people wearing plastic bags inside their boots (or shoes), over their socks, successfully staying off incapacitating foot injury long enough to walk to safety through severe cold environments. While moisture from perspiration does accumulate to make socks and feet wet, the bags also trap enough body heat to keep feet from freezing for as long as a person remains active enough to generate sufficient body heat. That's why parents without other readily available means can use plastic bags to protect active children outside, for short periods of time, in cold (especially cold-wet) weather as long as they are brought back inside soon after their activity level drops. At lesser activity levels there will not be enough body heat generated and trapped inside the bags to offset the cooling effects of the trapped moisture. If I were forced to transition from high activity to low activity while using the plastic bag expedient, I would, if possible (which isn't likely), relocate the bags under my wet socks so that my skin would be protected from direct contact with ice crystals if the wet socks froze. The socks would go back on though; because, even wet socks may have insulation value depending on the material.
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