At-Home Date Nights That May Beat Going Out

Whether it’s because you have kids at home and no babysitter, or because your favorite date-night haunts are currently off the table, most of us are spending far more time at home these days—and nights—than we’d like. Here are some fresh, new date night ideas to help make your evenings at home more fun.

• Pick a puzzle – Remember jigsaw puzzles? Those 500-piece challenges you were tempted to save and frame after all the fun and work that went into them? Pick out one that recalls your favorite vacation spot, or the destination next on your bucket list, and spend the evening puzzling.
• Have dessert for dinner – Whether you order in your favorite dessert from a local restaurant, build your own towering ice cream sundaes, or choose a delectable recipe and cook it together, throw nutrition under the bus for one night and indulge your sweet tooth together.
• Make it a tapas night – If you can’t get behind a sweets-only dinner, make tapas together instead. The Spanish custom of assorted appetizers offers lots of leeway and a broad array of food choices, such as thin sliced ham, cheeses, pickles, flatbreads, sauces and dips. Let your taste buds be your guide, then arrange your tapas feast attractively on boards or platters and enjoy with your favorite music as background.
• Enjoy a spa night – Fill up the tub and surround yourselves with scented candles, plush towels and your best lotions and soaps. 
• Have a candle-lit evening – Turn off the lights and your cell-phones, light some tapers and scented pillars, and spend the evening by candle light. Eat, read to each other, listen to music or stroll down memory lane perusing the pages of an old photo album.
• Plan a trip – A flight to Paris? A cross-country road-trip? An over-water bungalow in Fiji? Most airlines, resorts and cruise companies are offering great prices on post-pandemic vacations booked now. Spend an evening deciding on your next destination and scoping out prices, cuisines, sight-seeing musts and all things related to your next trip.