Written with love, by Felicia Zammit-McMann
I am a huge proponent of date nights! They are a great way to take a dedicated time each month, or each week with your loved one and disconnect from all the interruptions of our tech-filled lives. Between Facebook, texting, work, duties at home, and all the other people and things that seem to pull at us every minute of the day, it’s the ones we love the most that we end up never being around as much.
free date night ideas
Now, I love a good dinner out just as much as the next person, but I’m going to throw an old-school idea at you to try the next time your date night approaches. I challenge you to harken back to your childhood and think of all the games you used to play. I grew up in the ’80s before PlayStations and X-Boxes, before the Internet, before binge watching. I didn’t even have cable growing up, so for me it was great! I was able to explore my imagination, come up with my own games with my own rules, and spend hours playing board games with friends during sleepovers. In a way, those were the good old days.
Lately, though, I’ve noticed a resurgence in board games and puzzles. In fact, this year for Christmas, board games, puzzles and card games were on the top of my list. Santa did not disappoint! They’re not just for kids any more. Fortunately, for me, the world of pop culture and the world of board games have melded into something totally awesome! My husband and I LOVE the CBS comedy “Big Bang Theory,” and we LOVE Disney (which now includes the whole “Star Wars” franchise, so my hubby is extra-happy). Throw in a deck of cards and a pack or two of old-school card games like Uno, and you have one heck of a date night that adds a bit of fun and competition as well.
Not one for games? How about puzzles? I remember working on puzzles all the time as a kid. I remember the excitement of finishing and then leaving it out on the table for a few days because I always felt sad to break it apart and put it away. Some of them I actually framed because they were so big and took forever to finish. These days, puzzles are anything but ordinary. You have 3-D puzzles, photomosaic puzzles, lenticular puzzles. You name it, there’s a puzzle for it. If you have little fur babies (a.k.a. cats and dogs) running around your house, just make sure you either start the puzzle in a place they can’t get to, or put it away each night. The last thing you want is to get to the end to realize little Fluffy or Fido ate a piece.
So, I want to ask, what’s your favorite old-school game to play? Do you ever do a game night date night?
