Even if you’ve been dating for a while, the first Valentine’s Day together can be kind of exciting. A day devoted to love in all it’s forms is important to share with the person you love, but there’s more to Valentine’s Day than a nice dinner and a bouquet of flowers. Here’s a list of ideas for your first Valentine’s Day as an official couple.
1. Dinner and a movie...with a twist
Instead of braving the cold, trying to make a reservation and struggling to hear each other speak over the dozens of other couples who all crammed into the same restaurant on Valentine’s Day, stay in! Make dinner together and throw a cheesy movie on Netflix. To do more for one another, have one person cook dinner and the other does desert. Or one person buys the ingredients and the other cooks. Or any other combination you can think of. There are literally a million ways to try this date and it’s going to be way more fun and way less stressful than going out.
2. Skip dinner altogether, and just eat dessert!
Have a cookie baking bonanza, or make a cake. Choose one person’s favorite frosting and the other’s favorite flavor of cake and make cupcakes. Or find an entirely new recipe and try it out. If it goes well, you’ll have a go-to recipe for the future, and if not, you’ll always have a funny story to talk about.
3. Relive your childhood days
Remember when you used to get all excited for Valentine’s Day in elementary school? You’d make a little envelope for all your classmates to put those cartoon covered cards in, and if you were really lucky, your teacher had lollipops and chocolates for you? Make silly cards with bad puns out of construction paper and crayons. Give your Significant Other (or SO) a box of conversation hearts with one of those little cards from Walmart with their favorite superhero or princess. Don’t forget to make an envelope for yourself to collect Valentines!
4. Remember your friends, and theirs as well
While Valentine’s Day is traditionally reserved for couples, remember that because you’re a couple now, your friends are their friends, and vice versa, so be nice to their friends. Bake some cupcakes for their housemates or pick up a pizza for their buddies. There’s nothing more awkward than knowing your SO’s friends aren’t super comfortable with you, so do what you can to show that you mean well and that you’re not trying to steal your SO away from them. Be nice to your friends too. Pick up a colorful bouquet of flowers to brighten up your living room, or gift the house a communal box of chocolates. Friends are important, so remember to love them too.
5. Learn a new skill together
You’d be surprised how many classes you can find on the Internet. Learn how to solve a Rubix’s Cube together and challenge each other. Find a new club on campus or in town and try your hand at swing dancing, knitting or gaming. If you both like it, you have a new “couple-thing” to do. If it doesn’t work out, you can always say you’ve tried it.
So go out and enjoy your first Valentine’s Day together. And more importantly, remember to celebrate Half-Price Chocolate Day on February 15.
