you are here: Date Night: Your Favorite Decade
by Jennifer Good
Everyone has a favorite decade when it comes to movies, music, products, food and all around great memories. This week's date night gives you both the opportunity to dive into your past for a fun romantic flashback. Select a decade you're both particularly fond of and get ready to immerse yourselves deeply into that era! Make it a complete night with food, music and movies that were favorites in the decade you selected. For some unique and romantic ideas, here are a few of our reader's favorite decade date night picks!
50s Date Night
Child's Play
Spend an evening alone with your loved one reliving your youth. Play a game of twister and eat hot fudge sundaes. Play truth or dare or Simon says. Then, when the night is late, have your honey tuck you in and cuddle with you- giving you good night dreams.
--submitted by Jennifer Zitsch
Childhood Games With An Adult Twist
Here is an idea of what I would do for a date night with my love. First, I'd invite my loved one over and ask him/her to play a few games that we loved so much as kids but add a grown up twist to it. For example, we would play strip Twister; each person that falls must remove an article of clothing each time until someone is completely naked, resulting in one of us losing the game in a very seductive manner. We could also play Monopoly; the first to go to jail has to put on handcuffs. Make up the Chance deck with ideas for the card holder to do to the other, the Community Chest deck would be for the both of you to do to each other, and so on.
--submitted by Anonymous
Drive-In Movie at Home
My husband and I have been together for 10 years. For one of our first Valentine's Days together, I didn't have any money. So, I got a large refrigerator box and painted it red, laid it on its side and cut a side out. I made a heart shaped steering wheel, license plates that read, "Love Bug," cardboard wheels, headlights, etc. and I put it in the living room and rented a movie for us to watch. We both barely fit in the box but we squeezed in (all for the better) and ate popcorn and watched our movie! We had to get rid of the box, but he still has the steering wheel and plates! It was silly but it was really fun!
--submitted by Kate
Afternoon Painting
My boyfriend and I like to save money. So, for a cheap date, we went outside on a beautiful, warm day and painted a "Paint by Numbers" picture together. It only cost four dollars at Wal-mart. It was so romantic painting together on such a lovely day! The best part about it was that I got to spend quality time with the nicest, most handsome man ever!
--submitted by Sarah Shore
60s Date Night
Belly Dancing Date Night
Friday nights are "date night" for my boyfriend and I. I really wanted to do something special. I have been taking belly dancing classes, but if you wanted to try this you could just buy something sexy and fake it. I even bought thumb cymbals just to complete the outfit. I hung fabric/sheets from the ceiling with fishing line to make a tent in the living room and threw all of the pillows in the house on the floor inside the tent. You could hang a lantern, but I lit candles all over the room and safely placed one on the table inside the tent. Prepare only finger foods and don't allow any utensils so you have to feed each other. Put on a sexy dance before you eat to work up both of his appetites!
--submitted by Anonymous
70s Date Night
Blacklight Fun
One night I ran a bubble bath for my girlfriend. While she was busy in the bath, I replaced the bulbs in the basement with blacklight bulbs and I also brought in a black light lamp. I put a mattress on the floor with a white sheet over it. I also had a bunch of fluorescent markers and plenty of paper. The mood was set! When she came downstairs, I put on Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon. She was really surprised to see what I'd done. We spent the whole night writing on each other, on the bed, writing notes to each other on the pieces of paper, and enjoying each other under the glow of the black lights. It was a night to remember!
--submitted by Jack
80s Date Night
Creating Our Own Memory
Since me and my boyfriend didn't meet until college, we never had the opportunity to go to a school dance together. We talked about it, and we both wished we could have went to one with each other. So, I made a mixed CD with both fast and slow songs, and I got a disco ball and streamers to decorate the living room. It looked like a high school prom! I also made a big dinner, so it would be like we went out to eat before the dance. I wore a beautiful dress, and my boyfriend rented a tuxedo. It was really fun, and it's something we'll never forget.
--submitted by Anonymous
Naughty Nintendo
My fiancé and I like to play this with the old NES, but it will work with any video game system. When one of us is in the mood, we have a code for going up to my room. One of us suggests that we should go play Nintendo and the other knows what that hint is right away. This works well for us, being that I live at home with family still and my fiancé is in the Navy and only gets to visit once in a while. When we do get into my room, we start to play Nintendo, distracting each other the whole time. The idea is to keep playing until you die, while the other is trying their hardest (either by talking or touching) to make you die so they can play and you can try to mess them up. It works out well for a while, but eventually we get so side tracked that we wind up turning the game off and making a game of our own if you know what I mean...
--submitted by Amanda
I Don't Wanna Grow Up!
My boyfriend had mentioned to me the other day that he never wanted to grow old, because he always wanted to maintain an active lifestyle. We are always looking for fun things to do to keep life exciting. So, when he said this it gave me a great idea. I went to the mall candy store and bought "Pop Rocks", candy bubbles (bubbles that are flavored so you can catch them on your tongue), and M&M's (which are his favorite). I then went to the dollar store and bought us a whole bunch of water guns. All of this cost me about $10.00. When I went over to his house and surprised him with a big paper bag, he just looked at me. The look on his face when he opened it was priceless! He was like a kid again. We had so much fun playing water tag and blowing bubbles. Pop-rock kisses are amazing as well!
--submitted by Anonymous
90s Date Night
Coffee and Games
I don't usually have a lot of money to spare, but when I have a date, I enjoy taking the guy out on a date rather than being taken out on one. So, I've found an easy, fun solution that's pretty cheap. What I do is go to this certain coffee house with the guy, buy us coffee and dessert and spend about four hours there playing Monopoly. The coffee house provides lots of game boards, but I'm sure others wouldn't mind if you bring your own. It's always a fun activity to do and brings out the competitiveness in me! Guys always love seeing that side. If you don't want to take a board game to a coffee house, try a deck of cards, and teach each other games.
--submitted by AthenaMari
French Fries and Dress Up
I love dressing up, but I'm on a strict student budget and can't always afford expensive dinners out, so my boyfriend and I often dress up, me in a dress, him in a suit, then go to a fast food restaurant and each have a combo. Then we sometimes go five-pin bowling (it's always cheaper) and finish up the night by going to the discount movie theatre. You can always check your local paper for amateur theatre productions or elementary school band concerts or plays as well. It's important to play the part too; we often make up a story about our riches and go window-shopping downtown and talk about the things we are going to buy. You can't really do this if you're overly shy because you get a lot of weird looks, but it's totally worth it. They have been some of the most romantic nights I've ever had!
--submitted by Jennifer
Making Dinner For Two
Me and my boyfriend decided to make dinner together one night. We each picked recipes for the meal and for dessert, and we went shopping together for the ingredients. When we got back to my apartment, we went to work cooking the food we'd gotten. We helped each other with our menus, and before long everything was done. We enjoyed a great meal together, and taking time to work together to prepare the food made it even better! It was a great bonding activity!
--submitted by Katie Zolton
