7 At-Home Date Ideas for Valentine’s Day

If you are like my husband and I, Valentine’s Day now looks quite different with a toddler in the picture. For now, gone are the days of fancy dinner reservations, overpriced parking, roses, and enormous stuffed animals that creepily say, “I love you” at the press of a button. And it’s not because we have given up or no longer try to express how we feel about each other. But because we have a young son, we want to be sure that our money and time are spent exactly how we want when that magical bedtime hour rolls around and he is asleep.

When we are kid-free, I want to have quality time with my husband. {I also want to take a nap, but that’s a bit lame for Valentine’s Day.} I want to do something that reconnects us, not just go through the motions to check off the boxes to get dressed up, pay a babysitter, and eat in public on Valentine’s Day. Of course, we still do those things, but being among the masses seems more like a chore than a luxury on “Hallmark holidays” like Valentine’s Day. So if you are like us, you may find yourself at home for V-Day looking for some at-home date ideas to make it a bit more fun than your regular routine!

7 At-Home Date Ideas for Valentine's Day

1.} Subscription Date Boxes

If you prefer the click of a button on a website to be the extent of your date planning, then this option is for you… Datebox and Crafted With Love are companies that MAIL YOU ENTIRELY PLANNED DATES. You literally don’t have to do any thinking at all – which at this stage of life is extremely rare. No more wracking your brain for unique date activities. You just open your box and follow the date instructions. Previous boxes have included: dance lessons, painting activities, s’mores kits, conversation cards, and potted herb planting materials. Each box, the theme, and activity are a surprise, so you don’t know until you open your box what the two of you will be doing! Like other subscription boxes, you choose the frequency of receiving your shipment either one-time or monthly {which means this could be an option extending well past Valentine’s Day}.

2.} Complete a Customized Puzzle

When you think of puzzles you may think of your grandma … or a 500-piece puzzle featuring a cat hanging from a ball of yarn with the saying, “Hang in There.” But how about instead you two complete a puzzle together that could be featured in your house after? That’s not as grandma-ish, right?! Select a meaningful picture of you two, your family, or scenery from a favorite trip then hop over to Shutterfly and order a customized puzzle to work on together. *Just remember, you need to lay plastic or wax paper under as you work on the puzzle for gluing at the end.

3.} Learn a New {Love} Language

Did you know that we all speak different love languages as our way of expressing our love to others? Some people “speak” through acts of service or words of affirmation, and others through receiving/giving gifts. We all express love in different ways, and odds are that you and your spouse speak different languages. So, if you both speak different languages you could be completely missing your spouse’s daily expressions of love. Seriously, washing dishes {acts of service} could be his way of saying “I love you.” And maybe all he needs from you is to hear, “You do such a great job providing for our family,” {words of affirmation} to keep the marriage train rolling along. If this makes little to no sense to you, then exploring Gary Chapman’s The 5 Love Languages together could be an informative night. You can both answer a questionnaire to determine your individual love languages and then learn more about ways to understand how you can both “talk” each other’s languages. It really is like learning a new language because, trust me, it doesn’t immediately feel natural to “speak” another person’s love language.

4.} Become Pizza Artisans

While this does require some shopping and clean-up, cooking together can be fun. You can get those creative juices flowing and make whatever kind of pizza you want. Does buffalo chicken with pineapple sound magical to you? Go for it – the pizza sky is the limit. To up the easy factor, use the pre-baked crust as your foundation, then add marinara sauce, customized toppings, and shredded cheese – BAM, you are a pizza making guru. We like the Boboli brand found at either HEB or Kroger in the interior aisles. If you want to make it REALLY easy, then grab yourself two frozen cheese pizzas and add toppings and shredded cheese to achieve your pizza masterpiece.

5.} Get Crafty and Competitive

You can really go any direction here. However, two suggestions I’ve personally done are:

  1. Coloring books for adults. I recently had a girl’s night including wine and coloring books for adults. It was very relaxing! It could’ve been the wine or absence of children, but we all agreed that the coloring itself was therapeutic and a fun creative outlet. So why not set you and your honey up with some colored pencils, and if you are feeling fancy, glitter pens, for a night of coloring? Amazon and Target both carry a variety of options. At the end, you have a color masterpiece created by your spouse just for you.
  2. Ceramic coffee mug crafting. The end goal is to design a mug for your spouse to use. It can be sentimental, an inside joke – you name it – as long as it represents something you want that person to be reminded of each time they use it. All you need is a mug, sharpies, and an imagination. For a long-lasting mug, you can even order from Bake At Home Ceramics for dishwasher and microwave safe mugs and designing tools!

With any of these craft projects, you can make them into a competition. Enlist your friends/family to vote for the best coloring or mug via group text messaging. We did this with our mugs, and the text responses we got from friends were very entertaining. And side note, my mug totally won.  Just sayin’.

6.} Delivered Food and Adult Conversation

Remember when you used to eat a meal at a normal pace AND casually talk to your spouse? Yea … those were the days. These days I find myself shoveling my food {with or without my son} because I am so used to a rapidly expiring attention span, or him deciding he doesn’t like the food I’ve given him so we then play the what-will-we-eat-for-dinner guessing game. The point is that most meals are a little hectic at our house. So if you are at this stage of life like us, a meal with peaceful conversation may be super refreshing.

To ensure optimal relaxation for you and your spouse, forgo the driving to get take-out option. Treat yourselves to the food delivery services of apps like DoorDash, Postmates, UberEats, GrubHub, etc. Before you order, hop on social media to see if a friend has a discount code they can send you.

If you need some topics to kick-start the conversation {not about the kids}, then get on Pinterest ASAP.

7.} Movie Night Roulette

Watching a movie together could be something you do frequently. But does the movie selection get left up to chance? No? Well, how about you two get a little crazy and play movie roulette? You both select 3 movies for consideration, throw the titles in a hat or use Random.org to pick the winning movie you two will watch! You can also go all out with buying popcorn, candies, and any other goodies that will make this movie night stand-out. Also, how about trying to utilize more affordable platforms to rent your movies? Redbox stations, Hulu, or Netflix are all great options. I was all about the ease of On-Demand until my cable bills started increasing in increments of $6 because of rental charges!!

We have you covered with even more ideas, but regardless of what you choose for your at-home date, the point is to pick something that results in quality time together! With kids in the picture, it is so easy to forget the couple that you were before your life was focused on schedules, feedings, poop, barf, and teething. So, whatever you do – just DO SOMETHING.

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Jaclyn D
Jaclyn was born a Jersey Girl, but became a Texan after moving here at age 5. After a degree from Texas A&M, she began her career in the oil/gas industry within talent acquisition. Simultaneously, she realized she had a crush on a boy named Andy who became her best friend, #1 supporter, and eventually her husband 5 years ago. After many years of Inner Loop living, they welcomed their son Mason {May 2015} and made the ‘burb life’ jump to The Woodlands {hello, nature and commute}. When she isn’t working fulltime in the office, she is putting in the Starbucks fueled hours at home hoping to be a great ‘employee’ for her spirited, sweet, non-stop energy, at-home boss - son Mason. {Side Note :: Being a boy mom should have a manual included at the hospital. Amen?} While off the clock for both jobs, Jaclyn is getting connected in her church, trying the newest workout fads {jogging doesn’t cut it}, making to-do lists, crossing off said to-do lists, Mexican food, wine, wine, wine and trying to convince her husband that New Girl IS a funny show.

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