Twenty Stay at Home Date Ideas

Are you and your partner looking for new ways to spend time together while stuck at home? This post will spark your quarantine romance with 20 creative stay at home date ideas! Fall 2020 is upon us. On the West Coast, Fall means it’s time for the rain to start. In Vancouver, sometimes we can go an entire month in Fall without a clear day. This means a lot of Fall days here are spent indoors. This year, Fall 2020 brings the added concern of a Covid-19 second wave, all the more reason most of us will be spending more time inside.

As fun as going out can be, my partner and I find that being at home alone together allows us to connect and be ourselves more than if we were having our dates somewhere public. Having a date night at home can also be a lot more budget friendly than a big night out. That being said, it is important to plan activities that feel like real dates to differentiate that time for each other from general time at home when you are both just there. Whatever your reason for wanting to hold your date night at home, you’ll love these 20 ideas for at home dates!

Twenty Stay at Home Date Ideas

1. Have a themed movie marathon

There are many different themes you can use for a movie night. You could watch all the movies in a series, such as the Harry Potter movies or the Lord of the Rings movies. You could pick a movie genre as a theme and each choose your favorites. Other suggestions include: a Disney themed movie night, favorite childhood movies, 1980’s movies, etc. There are so many options to get creative with! You can also coordinate your outfits or snacks to fit your theme.

2. Build a blanket fort and watch a movie in it together

If you want to add a fun element to your movie night, build a fort or create a cozy space to watch your movie. There is something romantic about the lighting through a blanket wall. Working together to build a fort will also bring you closer, and likely result in some laughs.

3. Binge a TV show

If movies aren’t your thing, try binge watching a show together. You can spice it up by creating games based on different actions the characters do. For example, whenever a character says their catch phrase you both have to high-five, or whenever someone professes their love for another character you have to kiss. Or pick different silly actions for each other and divide the prompts.

4. Dress up in fancy clothes and have a romantic dinner

Create a fancy restaurant experience in your own home! Dress up, make a fancy table setting, light some candles. Have some wine, maybe even do a wine tasting! Put on some romantic music in the back ground. And if things get really spicy you don’t have to worry about privacy because you’re already at home!

5. Bake cookies

Baking can be a fun activity to do together, and at the end you get to eat the dessert! It doesn’t have to be cookies either, it could be whatever dessert you’d like! Add an extra element by competing in your cookie/cake decorating skills.

6. Try cooking a new recipe

Cooking together can be a date in itself. Try to follow a recipe from Pinterest, or attempt to recreate your favorite meal to eat out together.

7. Order in your favorite foods

It’s okay to splurge sometimes! If you can’t decide what to eat and you still want some romance, order in all your favorite foods through an app like Skip the Dishes. Sometimes its nice to be able to relax together with all your comfort foods in hand.

8. Have a karaoke night

Singing along to songs together can be a lot of fun. You can also learn a lot about your partner by listening to their favorite songs and talking about the roles different songs have played in their life.

9. Follow a painting tutorial on Youtube

Pretend you are taking an art class together and follow a painting tutorial. Each paint your own version of the same tutorial and see how your different interpretations turn out! If anything you’ll get a good laugh out of it.

10. Do a craft/DIY project

Crafts can be a fun couples’ activity. Find something cool to make on Pinterest or Youtube. If you live together you can try making a DIY together to decorate your home. An example of a crafting date I do is every year my partner and I add a new handmade ornament to our Christmas tree! Now when we decorate our tree we get to think back to all the fun memories we had creating different ornaments together.

11. Make fancy hot drinks

A fun thing to do at home during Fall and Winter is to recreate your favorite coffee shop drinks together. Make if fun by creating latte art or trying cool trends, such as whipped coffee.

12. Make your own cocktails

Going out for drinks can be so expensive, so why not bring the bar home? Recreate classic cocktails, or come up with your own recipes and have each other taste test them!

13. Have a video game competition

Sometimes you need a little friendly competition! Our favorite game to compete in is Mario Kart. If you’re in the mood to work together, you can also play a team-work oriented game. My partner and I always end up laughing hysterically every time we try to play the game Over Cooked together on the Nintendo Switch (try it and you’ll understand).

14. Play a board game

If video games aren’t your thing, have an old fashioned board game night! There are lots of board games that work well with two people, such as Monopoly, Scrabble, and Chess. There are also lots of good card games you can play with two player, like Speed, Slap Jack, Go Fish, and Blackjack. One of my partner and my favorite games to play is Exploding Kittens.

15. Look at your photos together

Sometimes it can be a fun date to just look back through your memories together. Put on some music and have some wine while you look through the photos from your past vacations and special moments. Why take all those photos if you’re not going to look at them, right? Google Photos will even create slide shows of your photos for you!

16. Have a spa day

Sometimes the best thing to do together is just relax! There are lots of things you can do to pamper each other. Order some face masks on Amazon, or create your own. Take turns giving each other a massage. Diffuse some essential oils.

If you like this idea, check out my list of 20 free self-care ideas!

17. Throw a dance party

The song, “Party for Two” by Shania Twain comes to mind for this date idea. Try learning a dance together, or just dance around how ever you like!

18. Create a themed night based on a place you want to travel to together

Covid-19 has us taking a break from travel this year, so why not bring the travel vibes to your home? Pick a place that you’ve always wanted to go together and bring as many elements from that place to your at home date night. Order food that comes from that place. Drink wine that was made there or cocktails that were invented there. Play the music you would hear there. Watch a movie or a documentary that takes place there. If you plan to go there in the future try practicing some phrases together in that country’s language to prepare for when the day comes!

19. Plan a trip together

Sometimes planning a vacation can become a full date. Make a bucket list of the places you want to see together. Pick a place and create a dream vacation for the two of you. You don’t need to plan when you’ll go, sometimes it’s nice to have a dream vacation you both agree on so you can work towards it as a couple. It will help you look forward to your future together!

20. Learn a new skill

There a are lots of tutorials on Youtube where you can learn new skills! Pick something you’d like to do together and it can become a shared hobby for future at home dates. Learn how to cook, or sew, or how to build things. You could even learn a new language together!

I hope you found this list helpful! Let me know, what are your favorite at home date ideas? Comment below!

Want more lists? Check out my list of 10 Questions to Ask Yourself Before you Buy Anything!