A Pandemic Guide to a Romantic Holiday Season

Ideas to enjoy 2020 holidays with your partner

I think that date nights are important. I also think that during a global pandemic it is hard to keep organizing them with your partner.
With a lot of opportunities cut out due to social distancing and lockdowns, how can we still enjoy some time together with our better half?
It is something that I have struggled with a lot this year! My partner and I did less than half of the things we had in mind this year. We wanted to travel, eat in fancy restaurants, meet different cultures and I’m honest: we are sad about that. But we decided to look at the bright side of it and think of everything that is happening as an opportunity that may not come back to just being together, spend time at home and enjoy slow living.

We have tried a lot of things to spice it up and to break the routine. We discovered that the first secret to have a wonderful date night without leaving your home is the attitude in which you are doing it. It doesn’t matter what you do if you do it with an open mind and you let yourself really enjoy it.
That being said, I made a list of activities we had some real fun with. You can find some inspiration for your date nights and eventually tell us how it was! Also, if you have some ideas for date nights at home that are not on this list… the email is info@manisolwedding.com, we’re willing (and thankful) to trying something new!

1 – HAVE A PICNIC

“But we live in an apartment and we can’t go out!”
Who said that the picnic must be outside? You can have a floor picnic, a balcony picnic, a bed picnic, even a bathtub picnic!
The key to a perfect picnic is to eat something you love sitting on the ground, which ground is up to you 😉

Image credit (and super cool idea!) by Broma Bakery

2 – BRING THE SPA AT HOME

You can have a bath, scrub, put on some facemasks, or just massage each other in the candlelight with some ambient music!
It’s a nice way to cuddle and take care of each other bodies.
If you need some practical advice on what to do or to buy this article is super helpful.

Bonus points if you have a bathtub! Image & super-cool bath bombs by Lush, our all-time favorites!

3 – THEME NIGHTS

My partner and I always travel a lot. And we really missed traveling this year, especially during these winter months! We do love to cook as well, so we came up with this idea – having some international theme nights where we cook, drink, listen to music and watch movies dedicated to a country or region in particular!
We wrote down about 20 themes and put them in a box. Each week, one of us picks a theme out of the box and that is going to be the theme for the following weekend – we have so much fun creating the recipes, setting up the mood, and even putting on some cultural clothes if we have! If we cannot travel, we might as well bring the world into our home.

If you are planning an Italian indoor-date night, we have some amazing recipes for you – message us and we can teach you how to make the perfect Italian gelato!

4 – SCRAPBOOK

This one is actually one of my favourites!
We printed pictures from the beginning of our relationship, text messages, lyrics of songs we used to share with one another… and we combined everything into a book (we bought the one from UP, loved that movie! If you don’t know what I’m talking about go and watch it immediately!).
It’s a nice way to remember where it all started, plus if you are planning a wedding it could be something super nice to show at the wedding itself!

Root & Branch Paper can teach you how to master your Scrapbook Technique, too!

5 – GAME NIGHTS

This one was a difficult one because other than chess, scrabble, and the other obvious ones there are very few board games that are fun with just 2 players. We are nerds and we wanted something particular this time! We did our research and we found some amazing games: Carcassonne, Azul, Pandemic (it’s perfect during the actual pandemic LOL), 7 wonders duel, Agricola, and Ticket to Ride. We had a lot of fun with those!

6 – THE MOVIE BUCKET LIST

We all have a list of movies we always wanted to see. This is the perfect time to watch some of those movies!
You can write down all the titles and put them in a jar. On date night, you set the mood by turning the lights off and making popcorns, then you pick one title from the jar and enjoy the movie!

Cuddle up on the couch and get ready for the movie marathon!

7 – THE “DRESS FANCY FOR NO REASON” NIGHT

Yes, you don’t need to go out to dress with the fanciest dress you own.
You don’t need to go out to look amazing, so just put on your best makeup, wear your high heels, and put on that dress!
You can also set the mood with music, candles, and the right bottle of wine 😉

Take your little black dress out of the closet and get ready for some indoor magic!

8 – WINE TASTING AT HOME

This one is actually a great idea.
Internet is full of advice on wine (or beer if you prefer), so you can prepare a tasting journey at home! Why is it a great idea? Because you’ll surely get drunk, and you are already at home. Drink safely 😉

From champagne to a glass of Chianti, yes, please!

9 – DIY PROJECTS

From making concrete furniture to cooking your own egg pasta, you can do a lot of things together!
You’ll need to cooperate so it’s a perfect relationship boost, plus you’ll get to enjoy your own creations afterward 🙂
If you need some inspiration just open Pinterest, you’ll find that you can DIY everything that comes to mind.

10 – ONLINE CLASSES

One of the good parts of 2020 is that there are a lot of online classes. You can learn to cook online with the best chefs in the world, directly from home and this is just an example!
The last class we took was a heels dance class with Yanis Marshall and we loved it! We had so much fun that I’m sure that lockdown or not we’ll be doing this kind of stuff more and more!

We are Italians, so yeah, it may sound stereotypical but we love a good old cooking class, even if it’s online!

11 – BUCKET LIST TIME

And we are at the end of this article. I know that making bucket lists at the end of this year seems risky, but it is a good opportunity to make it about nice small things.
On our bucket list, there are things like: to work out more, to be more open to listening to the people that surround us, to see our families more, to learn to cook gnocchi, and so on.

It is strange how we feel right now because of course, we miss a lot of things and we hope that this world crisis will end as soon as possible. The thing is, we are also sure that we’ll miss having all this time together, we’ll miss this slow-paced life, so we are focused on living this to its fullest.

I hope you’ll be able to do the same, that’s why I wrote this Pandemic Guide to a Romantic Holiday Season – hope you’ll enjoy it!

Alba