Make Valentine’s Day Special With Your Spouse
Valentine’s Day is all about celebrating the love you and your spouse share! Whether you’re traditional and enjoy heading out for a fancy dinner in town, you like to cozy up at the movie theater, or you prefer staying in and celebrating comfortably in your own home, don’t miss the opportunity to honor your spouse and celebrate your relationship. See below for 15 different Valentine’s Day date ideas for couples (besides dinner and a movie). Bonus—we even have a few family-friendly ideas for this festive holiday.
1. Create a Swanky Soiree
You don’t need to make reservations at the finest restaurant in town to enjoy an elegant dinner. Create your own soiree at the dining room table. Choose the menu, set the scene, dress in your best attire, and meet your love at the table set for two to enjoy a romantic dinner. As an added touch, use our free Valentine’s Day date night conversation starters.
2. Dance and Eat Dessert
Before you get your groove on, take time to make your favorite dessert together or bake something yummy with your kiddos. Keep it simple like break and bake cookies or try your hand at a homemade recipe. After you enjoy the tasty treats, grab your valentine by the hand, and share a dance (or two). Then, grab your little loves and dance it out.
3. Have a Movie Marathon
Create your own comfortable, at-home viewing party to watch your favorite films. Include the entire family for this date. Give your kids a mission: gather as many pillows and blankets as possible to build the perfect movie watching hideaway. Then, ditch the plain popcorn, and set up a popcorn bar for everyone to create a unique concoction.
4. Create an Interactive Dinner
Toss traditional for the night, and instead, plan an adventurous dinner the whole family can participate in. Here are some build-your-own ideas: nacho bar, pizza station, or baked potato bar. Take this idea to the next level by incorporating Valentine’s Day in the ingredients such as turning the sour cream pink with food coloring or having heart-shaped pepperonis for pizzas. Bon appétit!
5. Eat Breakfast in Bed
How often do you have the luxury of staying in bed and snuggling? Our guess is not often enough. Carve out time for a lazy morning with each other. Surprise your spouse with French toast and coffee or an omelet and orange juice in bed. The best part of this date idea is you don’t have to change out of your pajamas or leave the bedroom.
6. Set up a Double Date
Take some of the pressure off coming up with the perfect Valentine’s Day date, and instead, ask one of your couple friends to double date with you for this festive holiday. Pick a new restaurant to try together or have them over for appetizers and games.
7. Make a Scrapbook
What better way to celebrate your love and reflect on memories of your relationship than by creating a scrapbook. Pick an afternoon to make a scrapbook that represents a period in your relationship—maybe you create a book for the first five years you were together and you pull out old photos and love notes, or you start by reflecting on just the past year and make a book dedicated to it.
8. Book a Cabin Weekend
Beat the winter blues and use Valentine’s Day as the perfect excuse for a romantic weekend getaway. Even if you can only carve out a night or two, book a cozy cabin to spend uninterrupted, quality time with your valentine resting and reconnecting.
9. Go on a Walking Tour
Bundle up and play tourist in your town by booking a walking tour. Most major cities have walking tours, and if you’ve never done one before, they’re a great way to learn more about the history behind the place you live. Afterwards, duck inside a coffee shop, to warm up!
10. Have a Festive Fun Day
Use Valentine’s Day as your excuse to forego your responsibilities and have fun. Pick your favorite activity you like to do together and do it! Challenge one another in a board game or put together a puzzle you’ve been eyeing that’s been collecting dust. A low-pressure day filled with your favorite way to spend time with each other may be the best Valentine’s Day present you can give.
11. Play Hooky
Put in a last-minute PTO request while the kids are off at school or hire a daytime babysitter if your little ones are home with you and ditch your responsibilities for the day! Go on a day date with your spouse…what will you fill your free time with?!
12. Write Love Letters
We bet you tell your spouse, “I love you,” each day, but other than reciting your vows on your wedding day, when’s the last time you’ve expressed a lengthy declaration of love? Skip the generic cards from the grocery store and take time to write heartfelt love letters to one another this Valentine’s Day.
13. Host a Rom-Com Double Feature
Valentine’s Day might be the most perfect day of the year to watch your favorite romantic comedies. If you aren’t a sucker for rom-coms, indulge your love for one day only in a rom-com double feature. Snuggle up on the couch and pick two to watch back-to-back.
14. Have a Paris Themed Date Night
Paris is widely known as the “city of love.” It’s not a hop, skip, and jump to get to Paris, so for this day of love, bring the city of love to you and your valentine. Create a Paris themed date night featuring French cuisine, music, and movies.
15. Create a Vision Board
Before you get too far into the new year, use Valentine’s Day as an opportunity to create a vision board for your marriage with your spouse. If you need some help getting started, we’ve got a blog that walks you through simple steps for creating a vision.
Wait, what?! You don’t celebrate this fabricated holiday? With the hectic lives we lead, it’s easy to let celebrating your love for each other take a back seat. Valentine’s Day is a great way to launch into a year of intentionality when it comes to loving your spouse.
