Anniversary Date Ideas

The date:
Celebrating your anniversary with your family—just the kids, your parents and in-laws, or everyone within driving distance—can be pretty awesome. Have a better-than-your-average-weeknight meal at home, or go to a nice restaurant and take everyone along. (Rumor has it this is especially appreciated when your kids are young adults and nice meals are few and far between.)

Make it personal:
Ask the kids—and extended family, if they’re along—to tell their favorite stories about you.

Keepsake:
Make sure you get a group photo to frame.

For extra fun:
Invite your best man and maid of honor to join you. The more the merrier!

For milestones:
Reserve a private room at a nice restaurant so you can laugh and celebrate as loudly as you please with your loved ones.

The date:
Each anniversary, pick a different country or cuisine you’re curious about. Do a little online research and find a local, family-owned place that serves food from that area.

Make it personal:
Choose areas with connections to your family’s heritage or places you lived or visited as a child.

Keepsake:
Get a world map or globe and mark it with your “travels.” (Fun fact: The traditional gift for anniversary number one is paper—what a great way to start!)

For extra fun:
If there are a few appropriate restaurants in your area, go to one for an appetizer, one for dinner, and another for dessert.

For milestones:
Travel for real to a region you’ve sampled and fallen in love with. For example: For anniversaries 1-9, try cuisines from different parts of Europe—and for your 10th anniversary, travel by train from country to country.

The date:
Whether it was dinner and a movie, meeting for a cup of coffee, or making out in your dorm room after a football game, recreate the experience of your first date and bring back the emotions you felt when you first connected.

Make it personal:
If you’re in your hometown, go back to the actual scene and make new memories. (You’ll have to improvise the dorm room thing.)

Keepsake:
Recreate an old photo of the two of you as closely as you can—from clothes to poses and facial expressions—and frame “then and now” side by side. (Honestly, we never get tired of this idea.)

For extra fun:
Plan the evening on your own and surprise your loved one with the trip down memory lane—from start to finish.

For milestones:
Recreate a recreation…or your honeymoon…or choose a memorable weekend and relive the whole thing.

The date:
Want a little adventure? Climb in the car, pick a direction, and drive till you see something interesting. It might be a park, a restaurant, a tourist trap—be ready for anything.

Make it personal:
Incorporate your wedding date or anniversary into the drive. Married on June 4, 2016? Drive six miles and turn, then four miles, then 16 miles and stop. Is it your 6th anniversary? Hit the highway and take the sixth exit down the road.

Keepsake:
Snag a memento from where you end up—a menu, postcard, or just a silly souvenir. Or highlight your journey on a map.

For extra fun:
Make it a sleepover. Pack an overnight bag or camping gear.

For milestones:
Same idea—but in a different state or country.

The date:
If you have little kiddos, it can be tough to swing a night out on the town to celebrate. But having a date night at home allows you to focus on one another while the kids are nestled in their beds.

Make it personal:
Order carry out food from someplace special to enjoy at your own kitchen table. You can get out the wedding china, or eat off paper plates and avoid the cleanup. If your children are old enough, they might have fun playing wait-staff and serving you your dinner.

Keepsake:
Print out your own menus to commemorate your evening. Or write cards or love letters to each other to read over dinner.

For extra fun:

Set up an after-dark picnic in your backyard. Grab a throw, a bottle of wine, and your favorite picnic foods and revel in the stars and quiet time together.

For milestone anniversaries:
Hire a personal chef to turn your home into a fancy restaurant. You can relax and kick back with a cocktail and some (long overdue) conversation while the chef does the work for you.

The date:
Instead of making plans, make something for each other, and exchange gifts over dinner. Use your creative skills, or learn a new one, or just create something from the heart.

Make it personal:
Get inspiration from the traditional anniversary gift for your year—you can find the recommended materials or objects here.

Keepsake:
Easy—the gift!

For extra fun:
Try to keep it a secret until the big reveal on anniversary night.

For milestones:
Take a creative class together and collaborate on a project.

The date:
Each of you tells the other something on your bucket list, a secret childhood wish, or a crazy dream. Your partner has to make it “come true”…but the budget is based on how many years you’ve been married. Make it $1, $5 or $10 per year—the less you spend, the more creative you have to be!

Make it personal:
This idea is already about as personal as it gets.

Keepsake:
A keepsake is usually built in to this gift idea.

For extra fun:
Same answer—this one is already fun. You might take your husband on a jungle safari by putting all the house plants on the patio and dressing the kids and pets as wild animals. OR make your wife a movie star by scripting and shooting a film on your smart phone—then inviting pals to a screening to play paparazzi. The more impossible the dream, the more fun it is to make it come true.

For milestones:
Up the budget a little. Or make a mutual wish come true—for real.