Vintage valentine image courtesy Karen Horton on Flickr.
It’s St. Valentine’s Day! Did you forget to make plans to do something special for your significant other? It is certainly not too late.
Here are several ideas to get your romantic and creative thoughts flowing on what you can do in the next few hours to still make a sweet and memorable Valentine’s day with your loved one.
Spend Time Over Money
No matter how rich or poor you are, you only have 24 hours a day. So after those necessary hours you have to give to others, such as work, classes, and children, turn the rest of your time for the day to the person you love.
Surprise your spouse or girlfriend/boyfriend with an evening dedicated to something they enjoy. For example, if your loved one is a comic book, fantasy, sci-fi or video game fan, try using one of these many ideas from GeekSugar to celebrate their fandom - together.
A Date At Home
Valentine’s Day is one of the busiest nights for florists and restaurants. Without a reservation, going out to the usual romantic places is probably off the table.
However, you can make a memorable night at home. Six Sisters’ Stuff has an incredible list of ideas for pulling the night off, even at the last minute.
Go Out – But Someplace Unusual
If you don’t want to stay in, there are places to go out other than the usual restaurant venues. How about a museum, or a late night walk at a local park?
Art of Manliness has a few unusual night-out ideas for your Valentine’s day date. However, this has a lot to do with where you live. For instance, one year my wife and I thought we would go bowling for Valentine’s day. Having moved from New Jersey, where the sport is not as popular, we thought the lanes would be wide open for an impromptu drop-in game or two. Turns out in our new midwest town, bowling leagues were in full swing and it was several hours’ wait for an open lane.
Check with your local state, county, or city resources for tourists and try something new together.
Celebrate Anti-Valentines Day
The hearts, chocolate, flowers and frills aren’t every woman’s idea of a good night out. There is a growing trend of spending the evening ignoring or mocking the modern mess of Valentine’s Day.
She Knows has some ideas for celebrating Anti-Valenitnes’ Day on February 14, most of which are spontaneous, keeping with our theme of last-minute ideas.
You could also do something that commemorates the beheading of the Christian martyr Valentine on this day in the year 278, in whose name the day’s revelries are conducted.
Make Something
Take the time to make something, a personal gift that will be worth a lot more than something at the store.
MoneyCrashers has some ideas that are frugal and inexpensive, Design Milk has a how-to guide to making a modern mixtape. Finally, HGTV has several crafty ideas for cards and gifts that are romantic.
Still stumped?
If you’ve read this far and still haven’t come up with an idea, don’t give up home. The trouble with writing posts and lists like this is that the best dates are very personal, intimate affairs, and not something strangers on the internet can properly give advice on.
24 Savvy has one more list for ideas to spark your imagination of 26 creative date ideas.
Share your ideas for creative dates, or tell us stories about your most unusual date in the comments below!
