Filling the day with love: Valentine’s Day date and activity ideas

A collage-style illustration that incorporates the artwork from the front of a greeting card that reads,

Hey! Heard the one about Hallmark inventing Valentine’s Day? Welp, we didn’t. But I’m thinking we got that rep because we’re total experts at helping you plus the day up big for everyone you care about.

Like in this article—we’ve got fresh Valentine’s Day date ideas and creative inspiration for Valentine’s Day activities with the kids in your life, your family and friends, too. All are Hallmark-guaranteed to light up their hearts, put smiles on their faces and leave them with lasting memories of just how loving you are.

So if you’re like me and Valentine’s Day is a time to go extra with the everyday love you always give, get ready:  We’re giving you unique lists of things to make, places to go and experiences to create together with all the loves of your life.

Inspired? Create and share by tagging @HallmarkStores.

Valentine’s Day Date Ideas for Couples  

An collage featuring illustrations of three different couples dancing, next to a photo of a mirrored disco ball.

 

First Valentine’s Day Date Ideas

  • Learn something new, fun and creative. Take a cooking, art, wine-tasting or dance class together. Or learn a second language and practice speaking it together.
  • For a throwback feel, head to an old-fashioned arcade to play some loud and colorful vintage games together.
  • If your city has a Ferris wheel, take your love out for a spin!
  • Order a heart-shaped pizza from your favorite pizzeria or make heart-shaped quesadillas, roti, pita or hot-water cornbread for an in-home movie night.
  • Create a personalized photo booth. Give it a theme that captures your love. Make sure you get all your cutest couple angles!
  • Make your own “Kiss Cam” with an app or filter and then put your favorite shots in a photo album on your phone or a little photo book.
  • Go sing karaoke. Or do the home edition. Whether your romantic vibe is pop, funk, hip-hop or an old standard, singing your love out loud is everything.

 

Super Romantic Valentine’s Day Date Ideas

  • Get “haute” for each other! Dress elegantly like you’re going out but stay in for an affordable at-home date with nice wine and hors d’oeuvres.
  • Write one another a sensual love letter or card in real time and then read aloud to each other.
  • Make a playlist and have a listening session of all the romantic songs that have been the soundtrack to your love across the eras (even if you’re in your first era).
  • Reenact your first date, whether it was fun, steamy, silly or even kind of a disaster. Have a romantic do-over.
  • Send each other a series of your favorite selfies, whether fun, goofy, sensual, sexy or serious. Your love will appreciate seeing you in all the ways.
  • Play your favorite card, board or video game, but with spicy new rules you each make up. Unleash some hot creativity!
  • Book romantic massages or make some oils from fresh aromatics and DIY the massages.
  • Take a mini tour of sentimental places you’ve been together and share your sweetest memories.
  • Pack a picnic and watch a sunrise or a sunset together. Think beach, park or back porch.
  • Pack to stay for one night at a posh hotel you don’t normally go to. Level up the romance.

With this Valentine’s Day Date Ideas and Valentine’s Day Activities article, we’ve given you all kinds of ideas for loving gestures you can make with kids and family and friends. But what about messages for your many loved ones on Valentine’s Day?

 

Check out Valentine’s Day Messages: What to write in a Valentine’s Day Card where you’ll find ideas on what to say for new love and long-time love, too, funny and serious messages, light and sultry messages, and messages crafted for kids, friends and singles, too.

Long-Distance Valentine’s Day Date Ideas

  • Send a love letter misted with your favorite scent by old-fashioned snail mail.
  • Each of you write down your side of your “when we met” story for the other to keep.
  • Send a bottle (or box) of your love’s favorite wine, beer, tequila, sake or a non-alcoholic bevvy like tea, coffee, kombucha or chai.
  • Send sexy, sophisticated artisanal chocolates that look like little works of art.
  • Take a professional boudoir photo for your love’s eyes only.
  • Take a virtual class together—cocktail making, cooking, yoga or line dancing.
  • Share a romantic dinner together via Facetime. Whether it’s soul food, Italian, Mexican or Thai, eating the same cuisine will give you a stronger sense of togetherness.

 

Budget-Friendly Valentine’s Day Date Ideas

  • Create DIY Valentine’s Day boxes and fill them with favorite memories.
  • Have a rom-com movie marathon (mix in a surprise from other genres if your honey is rom-com challenged).
  • Have a date at a half-price or used bookstore.
  • Go thrifting for cute Valentine’s Day date outfits and follow up by going on a fast-food date to show them off.
  • Pop some cheap champagne and share a scented bubble bath.
  • Give each other a single cupcake, churro or mooncake with a sweet message tucked under a napkin.
  • Pick an elegant restaurant and make a meal of just the fancy appetizers.
  • Make each other a pizza from a grocery store box kit.
  • Share a recipe from your cultural heritage with each other. Have some frybread with the spaghetti or fried chicken and baked macaroni with the kimchee. Lumpia could be delicious next to steak, shrimp or salmon!
  • Belt karaoke love ballads together in the living room.
  • Have a Valentine’s Day breakfast date instead of an expensive dinner. Or have breakfast as a romantic dinner.
  • Grab some massage tips from YouTube and give each other a sensual rubdown.
  • Hit the skating rink for some “old skool” romantic jams while you twirl around the floor.

Nothing hits like an old-fashioned love letter to the person you want to spend your life with. Maybe that seems quaint or outdated to some, but it’s proving to be timeless. If you want to make the love of your life feel seen, known, appreciated and like there is no other person in existence who can have the kind of hold on your heart that they have, a love letter can be a beautiful gift.

 

You can say the things you say every day, the things that you don’t say often enough, and things you haven’t said until now. You can use your everyday words or level up a bit with poetic language that will stay in your love’s heart forever.

 

Here are hints for writing a gorgeous love letter, from finding the right pen and paper to capturing your thoughts to saying “I love you” in a way that will feel special forever.

Creative Valentine’s Day Date Ideas

  • Visit a museum together to look for romantic paintings. (Even thinking of Gustav Klimt’s “The Kiss” or Faith Ringgold’s “Love Poem” series can set the mood.)
  • Hold sexy poses and draw portraits or doodles or emojis of each other. Go wherever your artistic talent allows.
  • Make flower bouquets for each other. Hit up a nursery or big box store for affordable fresh flowers or a craft store for longer-lasting silk ones.
  • Each of you write 3–5 ideas on slips of paper for something fun/romantic to do. Put them in a gift box to pull out one at a time over the course of the evening. You’ll create a fun, spontaneous and bespoke date.
  • Dress up in couples’ costumes and take selfies around town. You could do a serious sexy take on this or repurpose Halloween costumes for romantic fun!
  • Do a sexy scavenger hunt that takes you to your romantic favorite places around your town or city. Give each other steamy clues. The winner gets a basket of romantic coupons.
  • Have a private poetry reading of famous love poems like Maya Angelou’s “Touched by an Angel,” “This is My Heart” by Joy Harjo or Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s “How Do I Love Thee.” Or write and read poems you write each other.
  • Design and get matching tattoos professing your love. After all, a tat says, “I love my person and I mean it!”
  • Create an “escape room” that neither of you really want to escape. Leave sexy clues and items (lingerie, etc.) to find. Build the experience around the story of your love.

 

Valentine’s Day Double-Date Ideas

  • Invite friends to join you and your boo in a salsa dancing or tango class.
  • Hold a gaming night, from board to live-action role-play, where you and your love challenge other couples to see whose love reigns supreme.
  • Join a group of friends at an amusement park or fair and enjoy romance in the fresh air and excitement.
  • Hold a trivia night where friends compete to see who knows the most about their partner.
  • Ask friends to come hiking with you and your beloved. Outdoors + exercise + romance. What’s not to love?
  • Get your favorite peeps to join you and your snuggle bunny for a round of golf or mini-golf. You get fun, friendship and time together.
  • Have your friends over to play a newlywed board game to see who gets bragging rights as the most connected couple.

Valentine’s Day Activity Ideas for Family and Friends  

A collage featuring an illustration of a Valentine's Day breakfast with heart-shaped waffles scattered with berries and syrup poured on top; next to this illustration is a photo of a mom and her kids playing bingo together.

 

Valentine’s Day Activity Ideas for Kids

For those of us with kids in our lives, Valentine’s Day is the perfect time to give them some extra love, affirmation and assurance about how important they are to us. Check out these ideas:

  • Make “hug” T-shirts where you paint your hands and hug the child, leaving palm prints on the shirt just where they’d be when the kid is hugged. Anytime they wear it, they’re reminded of your caring.
  • Create a fun chart about the heart in human history and why we believe it’s the heart that helps us love and care for one another.
  • Make a “Things I Love About You” scrapbook to help a child see their uniqueness and how much they mean.
  • Write collaborative, silly, fill-in-the-blank stories about family and friend relationships with the child as the star.
  • Find big, printable valentines that kids can write on and decorate for the people they care about with an act of kindness they’ve received or favorite thing about the person printed on the back.

If you want to help the kiddos in your world keep Valentine’s Day clever and crafty, check out these templates and free printables that will help them create valentines they can be proud  to give to friends, neighbors, teachers and grandparents.

Valentine’s Day Activity Ideas for Students in the Classroom

  • Valentine’s Day is a perfect craft day for kids. Break out the markers, construction paper, ribbons, streamers, straws and other materials to get kids’ creative juices flowing. Let them make one-of-a-kind gifts for the people they care about.
  • Have a silent disco party where each kid gets headphones to bop to their preferred music about love at a volume that suits them. This is great for neurodiverse kids or kids who love to move to their own beat.
  • Do a little music history unit and let kids find or write the “Cheesiest Love Song in History.”
  • Encourage kids to write a heartfelt short poem to a loved one.
  • Let kids decorate a paper heart acknowledging the goodness of a friend. For this “I Love What’s in Your Heart” assignment, a child compliments a friend for being a uniquely kind and caring person.
  • If appropriate, let kids use selfies to make personalized valentines. Or let them make personalized valentines with pet photos.
  • Make regular games like bingo or checkers more fun by letting kids use Valentine’s Day candy as playing pieces.

 

An illustration of a family sitting on blankets, on the grass, celebrating Valentine's Day at home; the family includes a husband and wife, who are leaning against one another, and their two children—a boy and a girl—sitting with a bucket of popcorn between them.

 

Valentine’s Day Activity Ideas for Family

We’re talking mom, dad, siblings, grandparents and play cousins, too. Family of all ages and stages!

  • Everybody to the kitchen to bake Valentine’s Day cookies or a new dessert recipe!
  • Try red handprint art. Everyone put their hands in the paint to make a giant heart or XOXO design.
  • Watch a favorite family-friendly movie. Let age-appropriate romance be the theme like in “The Princess Bride” or “The Princess and the Frog.”
  • Everybody can style their favorite red and pink tops for a Valentine’s Day-themed family picture.
  • Take the whole crew to the store on a card browsing tour. Each family member can find the perfect card for someone else and then personalize it with crayons, stickers, markers, ribbons and other fun creative materials.
  • If you live in the country, go outside after sundown and dedicate stars to one another.
  • If you live in the city or suburbs, take an evening walk together, enjoy the air and talk about what having a loving family means.

For some of us, rather than bringing happiness and fun, Valentine’s Day is a day of sorrow because we’ve lost a loved one in death.  Here are a few things you might do to acknowledge the one you’ve lost and take care of yourself on a day that can be a painful reminder that you’re missing someone. You could turn it into a day for self-love and self-care.

Valentine’s Day Activity Ideas for Friends

  • Have a “sweet friends” get together where everyone brings a treat to share.
  • Put on a Singles Happy Hour. Honor your friendships with sweet prizes, mementos…and yes, dranks for the girlies!
  • Do a few rounds of rom-com charades. Friends can act out their favorite scenes from favorite movies.
  • Create a waffle bar, crepe station or pancake buffet with decadent sweet and savory toppings for your pastries, from berries to chorizo and avocado.
  • Personalize a card or envelope for each guest and everybody writes each other sweet notes to take home.
  • Have a DIY spa night where everyone brings their favorite self-care items for an evening of restful indulgence.

Valentine’s Day is also a great opportunity to show extra love to the girlfriends who lift you up, take your 2 a.m. texts and calls, listen to your passions and your problems, and who will absolutely, 100%, call you on your stuff. After all, you couldn’t do you without them. If you need a few gift ideas for the people who put the love in your squad, check this list out!

Easy Valentine’s Day Activity Ideas

  • Make a date with friends and family at your local coffee or pastry shop and treat everyone.
  • Buy a whole cake and surprise everyone by dropping off a slice and a card.
  • Make a time capsule for someone with pictures, notes and meaningful personal items.
  • Buy a bunch of Valentine’s Day candy and hand it out to family, friends, neighbors, strangers—whoever you come across in your day.
  • Set up a table in your driveway and offer neighbors heart-shaped treats as they walk by.
  • Fill puff-pastry shells with whipped cream or ice cream to serve to your fam as a Valentine’s Day special treat.

 

Fun Valentine’s Day Activity Ideas

  • Get on social media and bust out some new choreography with the whole fam. Everyone has to create a new move for the routine.
  • Volunteer at the local pet shelter on Valentine’s Day to help animal lovers meet their furry little soulmates.
  • Volunteer at a senior center to help elderly neighbors read and write Valentine’s Day cards.
  • Make Valentine’s Day an “Acts of Kindness” day where you identify places where love and care is needed and think up ways to show up and show it. Maybe it’s taking food to an elderly neighbor, shoveling snow, volunteering to speak English with someone learning the language or visiting someone who seems lonely.

 

See what I mean? So many fantastic ideas, right? We love supporting you in showing love to all the ones you care about. Like I said at the beginning, we didn’t create Valentine’s Day. But we just might be the best hype-people that the day of love could ever have.

 

Need even more Valentine’s Day ideas? Well then, we’ll keep ’em coming: