“Never stop dating” is an important piece of marriage advice. When you’re trying to balance everything from your career, housework, family commitments, kids’ extracurricular activities, and so much more, it can be difficult to make time to continue investing in your marriage.
However, it’s important that you continue to spend time together as a couple, remind your heart of why you fell in love in the first place, and more than anything, spend some time talking and laughing together.
With that in mind, our team took some time to share our favorite stay-at-home date nights. Plus, most of our ideas are money saving and can help you mix things up from the usual takeout order and TV-on-the-couch Friday night.
- Host your own cooking show or have a cooking competition. Find a fun or challenging cake or entree recipe and have a contest to see who can make the best version or the recipe. Or see who can come up with the most delicious concoction using items you already have in your pantry. Step things up a notch by setting a time limit. (Pretend you’re on the TV shows Chopped or Nailed It!)
- Have a game night. Play each other in your favorite board games like Monopoly®, Scrabble®, and Life®. Or host an “Olympic night” and battle each other in multiple games. The loser has to do the bad chores for the week.
- Actually play with LEGOs®. If you don’t already have LEGOs® in your house, order a fun LEGO® set, turn on an old favorite movie, and go to work. If your kiddos have boxes of legos, borrow them for the evening and have a contest to see who can build the most unique, tallest, or realistic LEGO® project.
- Setup a backyard picnic. This date night isn’t just for romantic comedies and cheesy 90’s TV shows. Grab a quilt, pack your favorite picnic foods, and head to the backyard. Spend some time looking up at the stars and talking about your dreams for the future.
- Go camping in your living room. Remember how much fun it was to build a fort in your room as a kid? Grab your camping gear, or just a few extra sheets, and set up camp, turn off the lights (no one goes camping under fluorescents), unplug your phones, and make s’mores in your oven.
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Have a movie on the projector or do a drive-in movie at home. Find a spot in your yard, your garage, or even indoors to hang a sheet, grab a projector, plug in your computer, and get comfy. Bonus points if you watch one of your favorite classic films. Consider setting a theme for the night and following that theme with your movie and your snacks.
- Spend time around the fire in the backyard firepit with no technology. Unplug for the evening and roast marshmallows and hotdogs and spend time talking about the week. Don’t have a backyard or a firepit? No problem, put the Yule Log on your television (you can find a recording on YouTube) and make s’mores and hotdogs in the oven.
- Try a new puzzle together. Do you enjoy a new challenge? Pick up a new puzzle, grab some snacks, spend your Saturday night putting the pieces together and sharing the traits you admire about your spouse. (Is he hard working? Does he do the laundry? Tell him!)
- Make homemade pizza. Take on the challenge of making your own pizza dough (or buy some fresh dough from your favorite pizzeria) and use your favorite toppings to create a pizza that is unique. Or try making homemade pasta. Don’t forget to play Italian music in the background!
- Try out a new hobby together. Is there an art form, sport, or something one of you has always wanted to test out? Take lessons together and spend some time learning a new skill and, perhaps, learning new things about each other.
- Stay active together. If you’re an active couple, try taking turns doing your spouse’s favorite activity. Does your husband love to play basketball or go rock climbing? Try doing the activity together. Or consider taking a walk, riding bikes around the neighborhood, going hiking, or trying a new at-home workout video together.
- Zoom double date with another couple. Reach out to your couple friends and ask them to do a double date with you. Set up a Zoom or video call with them and enjoy dinner together.
- Go through old photos or watch your wedding video. Spend the evening reminiscing about funny memories (like your wedding pictures or a past vacation).
What are your favorite at-home date night ideas? Tell us in the comments.
