If you’re like me, you might be celebrating your first Valentine’s Day with a significant other. So long Galentine’s day, wearing black, drinking too much wine, and waiting for heart shaped Reese’s prices to drop by 50% on February 15 (actually, I’ll probably still buy those anyways). As excited as I am to have someone to celebrate with, I started having anxiety that it wasn’t all about me anymore. Valentine’s Day used to be a celebration of my independence, that I didn’t need anyone to complete me. And now it’s this weird day that I have to share with someone else.
But the worst part of it is not giving up Galentine’s Day or getting a great dinner this weekend. Oh, no. I have to get my S.O. a gift. Yes, the dreaded gift shopping ordeal strikes again. Because let’s be honest, you could write a biography about your partner on any other day besides the moment you need to buy them something. Suddenly you forget everything they’ve ever said. What is their favorite color? Favorite food? Movie? You have no idea. You have never met this person, you try to catch a flight to another country.
That’s dramatic, but gift shopping/giving doesn’t have to be painful. In fact it can be a lot of fun if you think outside the normal gifts!
Take a trip – This year, my boyfriend and I are taking a road trip for the Valentine’s Day weekend. We decided to spend our money together and go skiing, stay in a cool hotel, and hike the mountains of North Carolina. This idea is great because we don’t have to worry about a specific item to get each other and can instead just enjoy being together for a few days. Being active and spending more time than money together will be a great way to experience Valentine’s weekend. (And, I don’t have to buy him anything so win-win honestly.)
Cook dinner – Don’t get me wrong. I love getting dressed up and eating out at a nice restaurant where I can stuff Alfredo down my throat and then moan about my stomach ache for the rest of the night. But all of that effort to get ready and then only sit at a table with your S.O. for maybe an hour and a half doesn’t seem time effective. Instead, cooking dinner together and planning out a meal you both will enjoy gives you the opportunity to spend time together and have a great meal. You can even set the table nicely, put on some good music and drink good wine while you cook. And you don’t even have to wait to collapse on the couch from eating too much!
Go ice-skating – I think ice-skating is awesome and totally underrated. It doesn’t cost that much, you can spend forever in the rink, and you get to pretend that you are Michelle Trachtenberg from Ice Princess. Plus it’s a cute photo-op. I think doing activities as dates makes a relationship more fun than just sitting across from one another at dinner or watching a two-hour movie in a theatre. You learn a lot more about your partner by doing things like this than you might sitting at home or at a movie.
What unique Valentine’s gift ideas do you have? Tell us below!
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