Romantic Activities For a Non-Commercial Valentine's Day

Love hearts and roses aren’t for everyone. This Valentine’s Day, do things your way

With every other shop window decked out in anything red and heart-shaped, and radio stations playing love songs on repeat, it’s hard to escape the materialistic monster that Valentine’s Day has become.

No one can deny a cute teddy and giant bunch of red roses will look great on your Instagram feed. But, while commercial giants set a standard for romance, relationships come in all shapes and sizes and, as with most things in life, the best gifts won’t be found in shops. This Valentine’s Day, put your purse away and take things back to basics with these romantic, non-commercial Valentine’s Day activities.

Stuck making the same old recipes every night of the week? Valentine’s is the perfect opportunity to mix things up. Let a recipe book fall open and make whatever’s on the page. Have breakfast for dinner. Cook together or surprise your partner. Whatever it may be, go wild, and add a bit of spice to your Valentine’s Day dinner.

This is a fantastic way to have a spontaneous adventure together. The rules are simple: for the whole day, take turns deciding what you do for the next hour. No longer, no shorter. And the options are limitless. One hour you may be immersed in a two-player game, the next you jump in the car and drive to the sea, and after that, who knows! For the homey-types, it could be as simple as baking biscuits for one hour, and the next snuggling up under the duvet to watch some telly.

Honestly, is there anything sexier than a disinfected kitchen counter, fresh bedding and a sparkling toilet? At the end of a long day, getting home to a tidy house is bliss. Particularly when you haven’t had to lift a finger to get it like that. So why not pull on those marigolds and surprise your partner with a ship-shape pad, ready for an evening of total, clutter-free relaxation. Love doesn’t have to cost a thing.

Roses and love hearts aren’t for everyone, so why not give your day its own theme. You could pick “blue” and gift your partner a bunch of blue hydrangeas, visit an aquarium and finish the day by baking a delicious blueberry pie. Or maybe you and your partner love the Lord of the Rings? If so, a LOTR themed day including a trek up a hill, a treasure hunt and, of course, a 12-hour movie marathon could be just the trick for you and your precious.

When it comes to planning date nights, do you and your partner get stuck in endless cycles of:

“What do you want to do?”

“I don’t mind, what do you want to do?”

Homemade scratch cards are a fun, novelty idea, and a great way to cut out any indecision. Simply write what you want your partner to win (a museum trip, dinner, a picnic). Next, cover the card in clear sticky-back plastic, cover each prize with a couple of layers of acrylic paint, and there you have it: your ultimate date night solution.