Date nights add sparkle to your marriage
Many new year’s resolutions involve spending time nurturing your relationship with your significant other, and date nights are the perfect opportunities to reconnect with your spouse. Since Valentines Day is just around the corner, we thought we’d share some creative date night ideas to spice things up a bit! You don;t have to spend a lot of money or take off on an expensive weekend either, many of these ideas you can do right from home.
Five date night ideas if you’re going out
Find a drive-in movie theater
Drive-in movies are about more than nostalgia. Sitting in close contact with your spouse, with a movie on the big screen, creates intimacy not found at the movie theater. You can chat, hold hands and ignore the move if that’s the direction the evening takes.
Discover your outdoor style
Where you live will put limits on an outdoor date, but take advantage of your geography and the weather to find your perfect date night in the outdoors. Try an outdoor concert, bring a picnic to the beach or find an outdoor skating rink and hold hands so you don’t fall all over the ice.
Get a room
If you have the ability to do an overnight away, book a hotel room in town and become a tourist — a tourist who can sleep in instead of getting up at the crack of dawn with a little one. Eat at a decidedly not-family-friendly restaurant and stay out way too late dancing — or go back to your room early and curl up for the most blissful night of sleep you’ve had in months. You might love it so much you recreate the bed at home.
Paint the town
Nights out at local painting studios are quickly becoming a go-to for groups of girlfriends, but it can be a novel way to reconnect with your spouse, too. Bring a bottle of wine, and agree to laugh at each other when your painting turns out more like something your four-year-old would bring home than something you’d find in a museum. Doing something outside of your comfort zone can be more intimate that sharing a candlelit dinner.
Rock out and dance
It doesn’t leave much quiet time for talking, but seeing a favorite band — or at least one you don’t hate — gives you the opportunity to let loose with your spouse. Stand up and dance, yell your favorite lyrics and drink cheap beer that’s warm by the time you find your seats. Besides, a concert is the perfect place to wear your {faux} leather pants.
Five date night ideas if you’re staying in
Game night
Playing games with your spouse takes on a whole new dynamic when you’re playing one-on-one. Wager something to amp up the good-natured competition — maybe the loser cleans the bathroom for the entire month or the winner gets to sleep in every weekend morning for six weeks. If board games aren’t your thing, try teaming up for online trivia.
Travel without leaving the house
Choose an area of the world and challenge each other to recreate the culture in your house. Whether you’re channeling Spanish culture with paella and a Pedro Almodóvar film or dreaming of France over brie, macarons and a photo tour of Paris, taking your focus outside of your home can be surprisingly freeing.
Throw a carpet picnic
Candles, a soft blanket and stemless wine glasses that won’t tip are ingredients for a carpet picnic. Stretching out on the floor is cozy, comfortable and gives you and your spouse a different perspective. It’s like a drive-in movie in your living room.
Wedding redux
Hear us out on this one! Select a couple of your favorite wedding details: your first dance song, your favorite passed appetizer, a cocktail you drank that day, the perfume you wore. Dress up a little bit and have a special night that allows you to reminisce about your past while dreaming about your future.
Focus on adult conversation
Talking with your spouse seems like a natural part of a date night, but when you’re dealing with kids and other family obligations, date nights can seem more like a conference call or weekly project wrap-up. Set aside fifteen minutes at the top of your date to get any pressing concerns about the kids out of the way, and then ban mommy-daddy conversation for the rest of the night. Having a tough time with it? Pull out the Taboo buzzer from game night and buzz each other if conversation strays.
