Valentines or not, date nights are a way to give you and your significant other some time away from everyday life and some time that focuses on just the two of you! Every relationship needs a spark once in a while and whether you’re a going out couple or a Netflix and chill kinda couple, I have some cool date ideas for you to enjoy some quality time at home or outdoors in this Winter season!
Stay at home/ Very Low effort Dates
Wine & Cheese Night:
Plan a fancy wine and cheese night at home with your spouse & I say fancy because there needs to be something more than just sipping wine while watching TV to make it a ‘Date Night’! Decide a time in advance, get all your chores done , have dinner, clean up your living area and ensure you have your favorite wine & cheese/crackers/snacks at home. I would say dim the lights, light up a candle and snuggle up on the couch while watching your favorite show or a movie! A lot of you might have the snuggle up on couch and watch TV part as your everyday routine but trust me adding that candle with wine & cheese platter can add a lot of spark… tried & tested 😉
Cook for your spouse or Cook/Bake together:
Plan a mini three course meal and setup the table for a Date night mood. Me and Shaleen typically don’t cook together much because we both have very different ways of cooking 😛 You can cook their favorite dishes & at the same time, keep it simple enough to not exhaust yourself! The perfect dinner date can then be followed by Ice cream/ Dessert together while enjoying your favorite show! Whoever cooked the dinner gets to relax the next morning and the other one brings Breakfast in Bed 😉 Me & Shaleen also have a Valentines Baking tradition which is documented Here!
Board/Card Game Night:
If you’re a couple who likes games and love having game night with friends, it probably isn’t a bad idea to turn gaming night into a date night as after all the idea is to do something that you both love and if board/card games are fun for you two, its a perfect date night! I would say order in the food and setup a causal fun mood for this night and make it just about the two of you 🙂 Some cool game ideas for a couple can be Uno, Rummy, Codenames, Scrabble etc.
Home Spa:
Pamper yourselves with a little Home Spa in the evening! You can make DIY fruit masks or use the products that you already love! Start with giving a nice back massage to each other followed by a face scrub and mask, hair masks if you’d like and end it with a nice bubble bath! Make some aromatic Tea or sip on your favorite wine while enjoying the Home Spa and it’ll be one of your most relaxing dates ever!
Order Take out and Chill night:
This might happen often but calling it a Date totally makes a difference! It implies no distractions such as phones, office work, house chores and makes it just about the two of you! Have a nice Netflix and chill night, couch cuddles and order takeout from your favorite restaurant or from multiple restaurants based on the mood!
One quick tip is to avoid bringing up any topics that you know you both have contradicting opinions on for any of these date nights. Save those discussions for a later time and if those come up, change the topic and distract the conversation to something different!
Going Out Dates
Fancy Dinner/Favorite Restaurant Dinner or Brunch Date:
Splurge or save based on what you both feel like but dress up special for the Date night and go to your favorite restaurant for Dinner or try a new fancy restaurant! This is my favorite kinda date as we love trying new restaurants and totally love to capture fancy presentations! Talk about your journey or just how far you’ve come, ask naughty questions or just tell each other how you both have changed certain aspects of your life for one another etc. to differentiate it from a regular dine out night! If you’re not that couple who explicitly talks about these things, it might even be more fun but you know the best 🙂
Go Ice Skating/Snow Tubing/Skiing/Snowmobiling :
Try some winter fun activities together. Depending on the temperatures, you can either plan a day out at a hill that has activities like snow tubing and skiing or if the temperatures are too low, a lot of local schools have indoor Ice skating rinks! Checkout the hours for these activities and pre-book if available, so you don’t have to wait in queues. Go for a casual and fun Lunch date post activity to wrap up the day out and snuggle in for rest of the day!
Shop Together:
If you both love shopping, go out on a shopping spree together where you dedicate time for each person’s shopping and pick outfits for each other. Its important to set some sort of time limit for each person because if its me, I will end up taking all the time for my shopping and Shaleen being himself would never stop me from doing that 😉
Weekend getaway/Road Trip:
I’ve been wanting to do this with Shaleen for so long but our busy lives and travel plans are always overpowering my will of planning this getaway 😐 I just want to drive up North (as Minnesotans do), stay in a resort and do Snowmobiling and explore small towns! Its a very unlike me kinda getaway but sometimes its fun to enjoy little things and I feel we’re totally missing that in our lives! If you can, plan a fun weekend road trip and do all the things you love! You can always fly too but I feel that makes its a bigger trip and I just want some quiet fun time with my Boo 😉
Spa Time ~ Mani/Pedi or a Couple’s Massage:
If you both love to pamper yourselves, treat yourselves with a luxurious Mani Pedi or a Couple’s massage! There are a lot of coupons available for Couple’s massage around valentines and I’d highly recommend checking your Spa’s website for deals or use Groupon/Yelp for new offers.
Arcade Gaming night/Movie Night:
Just as you can plan a gaming night indoors, you can always go to Arcade gaming centers and enjoy the fun games. Some of these centers also offer activities like Bowling, Go-Karting, escape room etc. It sounds silly but trust me, Shaleen & I went out to an arcade gaming center one of the evenings and totally loved our time together as its something that you normally don’t find the time to do! One tip is to go a little late in the evening to avoid the Kiddos crowd at such places 😉 Follow this fun game evening with a Movie night or just plan a movie night post your fancy/fun dinner!
Hope you found a fun date idea in this post and remember that sometimes it sounds really normal or silly but just calling it out as a Date makes all the difference 🙂 If you need help in planning something special for your date on above ideas, you can reach out to me here or on my Instagram account 🙂
