Tips To Celebrate Valentine’s Day At Home

Part of planning Valentine’s Day at home is planning a meal. You can cook something (and we’ll get to that in more details later), or you could just pick up something.

To stay on theme, check out our list of Where To Buy Heart-Shaped Food For Valentine’s Day. You can find heart-shaped pizzas, doughnuts, and more.

Tips To Celebrate Valentine’s Day At Home

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Decorate Your Space

There’s a good chance you’ve had an at-home date night before. So, you know it doesn’t have to be a candlelit dinner, but you want to want to set the mood.

Dim the lights, light some scented candles, and set out some flowers.

Sure, you can run to the grocery store and pick up a bouquet of flowers for your lady. Pete will bring me some home from time to time and that’s really a nice surprise. But, for Valentine’s Day, step it up a notch with a flower delivery. I know, I know. You think that can get expensive. But, it doesn’t have to be. Groupon has a ton of deals on flower delivery. You can scroll through the site, look at the different prices and deals, and find one in your budget.

Don’t forget about decorations. An easy way to make the space feel special is to hang a piece of ribbon across your fireplace, then attach photos of you guys throughout the year on it. We just told you about two free 5×7 photos at Walgreens yesterday, so print those and look, your photo banner just got a little bit cheaper.

Set The Table

You want your date night to look different than your regular meals at home. This is the perfect opportunity to break out that fine China you got for your wedding that’s just sitting collecting dust in the cabinet.

If you don’t have an extra set of plates, you can always just spread out a red tablecloth from the dollar store on your dinner table. Grab the nice wine glasses, even if you’re just pouring the cheap ALDI wine. Use some Valentine’s Day napkins. 

A little pop of Valentine’s goes a long way.

If you want to start the day off on a really fun note, make our Valentine’s Day Breakfast Charcuterie Board. It has bacon, breakfast sausage links, heart-shaped mini pancakes, heart-shaped strawberries, and grapes. Plus fun toppings for those pancakes.

It’s actually a lot easier to put together than it looks because you make the bacon in the oven in about 15 minutes, the breakfast sausage on the stove in about eight minutes, and the pancakes in the air fryer in five minutes.

Take a few minutes to assemble and you have this on the table in just about 20 minutes. Perfect. And much quicker than trying to find a reservation for Valentine’s Day morning.

Dinner

I cook dinner at home every night, but Valentine’s Day dinner has to be special. You want a romantic dinner, not your usual pasta bake.

I mean, you can make that. Just really have to make sure you cook with love. And seasoning. It’s all about the seasoning.

Too many people exist in The Land of The Bland and are scared of salt. You guys. Salt is not the enemy. Adding salt after your food is done cooking will make it taste salty. Adding salt while your food is cooking adds flavor.

If you’re scared of seasoning and cooking, sign up for a meal delivery service. Those services, like Hello Fresh and EveryPlate, deliver everything you need (protein, vegetables, seasoning) so all you have to do is follow the recipe card and cook. These are perfect if this is your first time cooking a nice dinner. They walk you through the steps so easily. It’s nearly foolproof.

If you know how to cook, make something new that you don’t usually cook, like our Mardi Gras Pasta (with shrimp and sausage in a Cajun alfredo sauce) or linguine with clam sauce.

Or, what’s kind of super fun, is an online cooking class so you can make something new together. It’s less about how it comes out and more about just spending good quality time together.

Dessert

Do you remember that commercial from a couple years ago where grandma was too busy flirting and playing bingo to make her homemade chicken fingers, so she bought some, put them on a plate, and everyone thought she made them?

You can do that with dessert. After you’ve spent quite a bit of time preparing fancy dinner, I wouldn’t blame you if you called an audible on baking and just order dessert.

You can order something really different from a site like Goldbelly, a service that delivers gourmet food and food gifts from all over the country. So, if you saw someone on social media chatting about a fancy dessert, you can order it. You know how everyone talks about that Tom Cruise cake that he orders for all his friends and acquaintances during Christmastime? That’s a white chocolate-coconut Bundt cake from Doan’s Bakery in California. You can order that on Goldbelly.

If you’re not on Tom Cruise’s budget, check Groupon again. There are a bunch of discounts on desserts that will be sent straight to your door, including Sugar Plum’s smash heart, which we tried a couple years ago. It wasn’t that easy to smash, but it was delicious.

And, if you have a smaller budget but more time, you can make one of our Valentine’s Day-themed desserts, like our 2 Ingredient Valentine’s Day Fudge or our Nutter Butter Heart Cookies.

Choose An Activity

Just because you’re spending a cozy night at home doesn’t mean you should just sit there. It’s Valentine’s Day, so do something fun that you don’t do every night.

Maybe make it an at home movie night. Choose a romantic movie, make popcorn and a cup of tea or hot chocolate, and grab some cozy blankets. Turn your phones off and actually watch the movie.

Or play games. There are some weekend nights when we come home, bust out our video game console, and try to beat the game together. It’s one of the best ways to spend a night in. If you’re not into video games, you can have a fun game night with your favorite board games. A little friendly competition is a lot of fun.

Maybe have an at home spa day. Buy face masks and bath bombs or bubble bath and just relax. This is a great idea if you’re not the kind of couple that prioritizes self care because now you’re doing something new together.

Or, make s’mores. We have a Solo Stove that we absolutely love. We set it up on the back porch and use it to make sweet and savory s’mores. You’ve seen the latter, right? They’re so popular on social media. We did pepper jack cheese, pepperoni, and Ritz crackers. It’s so much fun and savory s’mores is such a fun twist. And really, Valentine’s Day is the perfect time to put a twist on things.

Exchange gifts

Celebrating at home doesn’t mean you should skip a Valentine’s Day gift, if you have the means and desire to exchange anyway.

You don’t have to spend a fortune on a gift. Don’t let those commercials where women are opening boxes filled with expensive jewelry fool you. You don’t need to spend a boatload of money on a gift. Sweet, thoughtful gifts are the best ideas.

Pete gave me a really cute “What I Love About You” book one year and filled it with really sweet words and memories. It’s basically a book of little love notes. I’m obsessed, still, years later.

Pete never wants “stuff,” so I usually get him a bunch of snacks for Valentine’s Day: beef jerky and hot peanuts and dark chocolate. And usually a funny t-shirt because those are his love language.

You know your Valentine. You know their favorite things. So get them something related to that, or something small they’ve been wanting. Or just give them your time. Honestly, just being together and being present is the most important thing.

At the very least, give your Valentine a card. You can buy one at the store and write your own heartfelt message inside or you can make a DIY Valentine’s Day card. The latter takes a little longer, but it’s more heartfelt. So that will score you bonus points.

How are you celebrating Valentine’s Day this year? Do you have some romantic ideas we can add to this post? Be sure to let us know in the comments.