There’s nothing wrong with chocolates, cards, sexy undergarments or fancy dinners at restaurants, but if you’re looking for a way to celebrate Valentine’s Day with your significant other that isn’t the same old song and dance, we’ve got some brilliant ideas here.
A Love Letter Book
Buy a really nice notebook with a design or cover art that is meaningful to you and your partner. On the first page, write your introductory love letter to your mate and give the book as a gift to him or her, with a request that you get the next page filled with words of love in return. Keep filling those pages on special occasions or just when your heart is full for your significant other. It’s guaranteed to become a cherished keepsake as you grow old together.
A Weekend Getaway
Pack a bag for your loved one and pick him or her up from work on Friday afternoon to drive off together to your destination. Bonus points if your room has a fireplace and hot tub! Make sure there are at least a couple fun things to do outside the room wherever you go, just in case you need some fresh air!
A Couples’ Spa Day
Never underestimate the bonding time a side-by-side massage with your significant other creates. Add in a facial or a mani/pedi – yes, dudes get them too! – so you can chat, and then enjoy a spa lunch together. Bliss!
Dance Lessons
There’s only one thing more intimate and connective than holding your lover’s body close to yours and moving to some good music, but dancing is a great second choice! Lessons keep you physically close with your clothes on, ensure you get some exercise together and have a fun time with results that will impress your friends the next wedding you attend or dance night out.
Words Matter
Buy some yummy-smelling bath bombs, run a warm tub and climb in together. Make sure you’ve got some romantic tunes playing softly in the background and take turns reading romantic poetry or dirty stories to one another, or both!
Food For Fun
Forget overpriced restaurants! Plan and prepare a surprise fancy meal at home for your partner, complete with flowers or a nice centrepiece, candles lit, soft music, good wine and you wearing something you know your love loves – even if it’s not much of anything! Feed one another for an added element of fun.
It’s The Simple Things That Count
If you have kids, offer to take them out early one weekend morning and let your significant other sleep in or just have the day alone. Is the house a mess? Clean it all up without complaint. Sometimes all your partner wants is something money can’t buy, so don’t over-think it all.
Binge-watch Bonanza
Gift him or her a casting device, send the kids off to a friend’s or grandparents for the night, and settle under a cozy blanket with delicious treats, your favourite drinks and whatever series or movies you and your partner have been meaning to catch up and binge-watch the evening away.
If you’d still like some presents to unwrap in addition to the brilliant Valentine’s Day gift ideas above, there are some great gift ideas for men or romantic presents for women you can buy that will also show how much you care.