Date night is always a good idea. With the increased “ground hog day” feeling many of us have been having during Covid times, creating fun, romantic, intimate date nights can be a welcome break from the humdrum. But we’re probably not going out, so we need home-based date night ideas. Here’s 9+ date night ideas for married couples or anyone else in relationship.
For date nights, we recommend one of you be accountable for the night. That just makes it more likely to happen in the first place. Plus, it might help come up with new ideas if you take turns being “on point” for the night.
In this post, we’ll share many ideas with you, some of which are classics (don’t scoff at the tried and true classics – they still work:-) and some added twists of intimacy and pleasure.
#1 Candle light dinner
If you’re a cohabiting couple you can do a good old-fashioned candlelight dinner. If you don’t live in the same place, you might have to do candle light Zoom dinner. We’ve done that with other coupled friends; it totally works. We got out the candles, the fancy square plates and an epic Italian dinner.
More importantly, get rid of the distractions. No phones or computers so you can just focus in on each other. Make sure you take time to make eye contact and share appreciations about your partner. Tell them what you love and what you appreciate that he or she did today.
These days, we got a gazillion things on our respective plates, and our daily conversations often default to being all about logistics and who’s doing what when. Simply sitting down, looking in each other’s eyes and telling your partner what you love about them is a good way to start a date night.
We also recommend you bring what we call intimacy questions (see this video post for more). That way, you’re prepared to spark conversations deeper than the usual blah-blah. Stories from when you were first dating and fell in love are always great to foster a sweet and loving mood.
In our marriage it’s now the stuff of legend how we met at a Massachusetts retreat center in the woods, in the dead of winter. As we tell the story, we were slow-motion running towards each other in big parkas, we had slow-motion snowball fights and made the perfect snowman. Just thinking about it puts a grin on our faces, and the story gets better every time.
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#2 Invent and play new games.
Ever hear the saying, “Couples who play together, stay together”? We didn’t make that up, but certainly couples who play together … play together! They just have more fun!
We’ve been playing new games a few times here in quarantine times. Can’t take credit for inventing them, other good people on YouTube did that. In one game, we set up a bowling alley on our or deck outside where the pins were kitchen towel rolls and we used a soccer ball as a bowling ball. Super fun. That’s now going to be a memory forever because it was different.
In general, not just in terms of games to play, anything you come up with that’s different creates a spark of life and counteracts the “ground hog day” syndrome. This one we included our daughter in: We found a new line dance on YouTube an all learned it together. Most of the time we looked uncoordinated and like total amateurs, which made it all the more fun to laugh at. And it’s always a viable date night idea to simply put music on and dance, period.
#3. Make a picnic somewhere different.
These days you might not be going out so make a picnic in your living room or on the floor next to your bed in your bedroom or out in your yard. Grab a bottle of wine or whatever your favorite drinks are and some good food and sit in a new place to enjoy it.
#4 Trust walk.
A really fun, and potentially a bit edgy, depending on your relationship, is to set up a trust walk (or other trust exercises). One of you is blindfolded and the other person takes you for a walk around your house or yard. This is a great way of heightening your senses. As you’re leading your blindfolded partner around, you want to make sure you take care of them and you don’t betray their trust and play tricks on them when their eyes are closed. You could lead them to go smell a flower or feel the grass beneath their feet or listen to a water fountain or pay attention to birds chirping.
For some couples, this can be a bit edgy and scary. So be gentle with each other and relish your heightened senses. See how much you trust yourself to lead or be led.
Watch the YouTube video of this post with Sonika & Christian
#5 Out of your head, into your body.
A lot of us spend a lot of time in our heads, taking care of work, business and chores. Conversely, we don’t spend a lot of time really being “in our bodies”, i.e. slowing down to notice our physical body and sensations. We’ve personally had some of the best conversations when we are sitting in our hot tub or we’re taking a bath together, which are prime opportunities for connecting to our bodies. An added benefit to being in water is you can’t be on your phones which helps a lot when you’re trying to get out of your head and into heartfelt connection.
As you sit and soak in warm water, bring in some of the ideas from #1 above (intimacy questions, eye contact). If sustained eye contact makes you really uncomfortable, you’ll know for sure you need to do it some more.
#6 Exchange massages.
Offer each other foot rubs, back rubs, shoulder rubs, or whole body massages. Put on some sensual music, dim the lights and enjoy each other’s touch.
#7 Pleasure sessions.
This is taking the sensuality up a notch from massages. A pleasure session is a set amount of time where you take turns giving pleasure and receiving pleasure. If I’m the one the one giving the pleasure session to Sonika I’ll touch her in various ways, and she reports back how it feels and asks for other types of touch. You can do this as foreplay to sex, but you can also do it fully dressed, sitting in a comfy chair.
The trick is to offer sensual, pleasurable touch. For the receiver, it’s about receiving and enjoying the touch, but also about communicating in a helpful manner how it feels to you and what you’d like next. Pleasure sessions are actually designed to educate couples about their partner’s pleasure and to offer practice in communicating what you want around sex and pleasure.
As the receiver, when your partner is gently stroking your arm, you might say, “Mmmmh, that feels really nice. Now I’d like you to try and increase the pressure a bit”. You practice asking for what you want in a soothing, non-blaming way. (Anyone ever had trouble asking directly for what you wanted in sex and pleasure?)
#8 Sex in a different place, different time.
If you usually have sex in bed only at night, for the next date night (which you might change to a whole-day date or a morning date, just to change it up), try making love in a different place and/or at a different time a day and/or try a different position. For example, we’ve at times made a little bed using pads or camping gear in our living room, so we had a little love nest just for the evening. Or in the summer, set up a tent outside for some outdoor love making.
When it comes to sex, it’s a common tendency for couples to find one thing that works and follow that routine over and over again. Nothing wrong with using what works, but if that’s all you ever do, your enjoyment level is bound to decrease over time and you might even get bored and lose your desire completely.
#9 Watch educational sex videos.
We’ve gotten so many good ideas for sex, love making, and (self) pleasuring by watching educational sex videos. It’s ok if you don’t have an infinite arsenal of sensational “moves”. Watching sex videos together can equip you with great moves for the future as well as turn you both on right now. Learn and turn on at the same time … what could be better for a date night!?
Remember, your next date night doesn’t have to be a big fancy production. Try and create something that breaks the habit, because the very breaking of a pattern or a habit in and of itself frees up energy and it brings us closer together. Having fun together keeps us connected and alive.
We wish you fun and intimacy with your next date night!
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