7 Fun Non-Romantic Valentine’s Day Ideas

Anybody else like me, and not very enthusiastic about romance in general? If so, I have some non-romantic Valentine’s Day ideas for you…

I don’t mean to sound disgruntled about Valentine’s Day. I know that ALOT of people enjoy the candles, and flowers, and chocolates, and romance, etc for Valentine’s Day and I wish you A TON of that stuff if you enjoy it.

But that’s just not me.

My husband is lucky, because he’s not like that either. Both of us prefer a non-romantic Valentine’s Day.

I get really frustrated when shopping for a Valentine’s Day cards because everything is incredibly mushy and embellished and sounds like “the sun shines bright everyday because it’s powered by all my love for you and yadda yadda yadda…” And if I were to ever give anything that read that way to my husband, it would immediately scream INAUTHENTIC. Yes, in all caps too.

So I just get a simple blank card and write “I love you” in it. Simple. But authentic. For me.

Neither of us enjoy anything traditionally romantic, so we’ll usually end-up doing something we both enjoy instead. Some non-romantic Valentine’s Day ideas that we’ll consider this year…

1. Going out to eat. This will definitely be a treat because we’ve eaten at home so much for the last couple years. But we’ll skip the candlelight service at a fancy steakhouse or Italian restaurant. We’ll probably end up stuffing our faces at a local BBQ or fried chicken joint with only paper napkins to clean up with afterwards. Totally up my alley. And we won’t need to dress-up or make reservations ahead-of-time.
2. True-Crime or Horror Movie marathon. We both love this sort of stuff, especially instead of any rom-com or lovey-dovey movie. I’m still trying to pick-out some good choices for us this year, and so far I’ve found “The Tinder Swindler” on Netflix about the dark side of dating apps, and this might be the one! It comes out on Feb 2. And it involves dating too, so it fits the Valentine’s theme.
3. Family time / games with the kids. My daughter does enjoy making a big deal out of Valentine’s Day, so I can see us doing something special for her. I’ve bought her chocolates and the stuffed bear already (um, our grocery store started stocking them as soon as Christmas was over) so she’ll receive those gifts and I’m happy for her to have them. She’ll probably want to play some games together and I’m down with that too.
4. Pick-out and buy a large item for the home together. We’ve been putting-off buying a new kitchen table for the house because we’ve been saving money like crazy and it’s really not a necessity. Our current kitchen table is functional, just scratched-up and beat-up and I’d be embarrassed for any guests to see it. Lol, good thing we don’t have any guests! But I would enjoy picking-out and buying a new one together.
5. Complete a household project together. There are also a few projects around the house that we’ve been putting off. Mostly because we didn’t want to spend the money, and also because we are being lazy. But, to actually complete one of these and get them scratched-off the to-do list finally would make me feel really good, and it’s definitely a non-romantic Valentine’s Day activity.
6. Catch-up with friends! Do you have any recently-divorced or single friends that could use a pleasant distraction on this day? Give them a phone call or invite them over, or, deliver to them those nice chocolate and flowery gifts for them to enjoy instead. They don’t need to feel left-out on this day.
7. Self-Care. Admittedly, this is the most-likely option for me on Valentine’s Day. Or, on any day really. I would love nothing more than to just tune-out everything in my head for a little while and just relax! This can be many different things to people – it can be shopping, a massage, a spa appointment, a bath, reading a book, etc…. Whatever it is that relaxes you and makes you feel a bit better about yourself (which makes you better for your loved ones too), would be a good option on this day.

But what are you all planning to do for Valentine’s Day? Are you more interested in a romantic or a non-romantic Valentine’s Day? Whatever you end-up doing, I hope you have a good time! 🙂