Winter date idea articles are a dime a dozen this time of year, but most of them list inane activities like “Go sledding” and “Make snow angels together!” Now, I don’t know about you, but making snow angels hardly qualifies as a date if you ask me. That activity could take 10 minutes, tops, and by the end of it you’re freezing and covered with snow, which is really not a good date night look. In my opinion, the best winter date ideas take place indoors and allow you to continue your denial that winter even exists in the first place. Spring is allegedly coming, so use these date ideas to get yourself through the remaining dark days of winter.
- Tour de Cocoa: Pick three local coffee shops and sample the hot cocoa at each one. To avoid gaining the Frigid Weather Fifteen and the dreaded chocolate hangover, just order one cocoa for the two of you to share at each spot (bonus points for being disgustingly cute). At the end of the night, each of you pick your favorite hot cocoa of the night. If you picked the same place, your love is meant to be!
- Hang out in an indoor conservatory: See if your town has an indoor garden/conservatory that’s open to the public (like Milwaukee’s Mitchell Park Conservatory). Stroll through rows of flowers and exotic foliage in tropical temps while winter rages outside and you just might forget what time of year it is.
- Drink something with a paper umbrella: Head to a tiki bar and order something with rum and a day’s allotment of sugar. Make sure your drink of choice comes with a paper umbrella and, preferably, a pineapple wedge garnish. Even better–order something you can drink out of a coconut. You haven’t lived until you’ve consumed a beverage out of a coconut. It’s why the phrase “this is the life” exists.
- Get out your swimsuit: If you’re looking to relax, suit up and hit the hot tub at a nearby hotel with your date. There is nothing sexier or more romantic than hot tubs as evidenced by their ubiquity in every reality dating show. Trust me, you can’t go wrong. If you’re looking for a more active date, try an indoor water park and race your date down the water slides.
- Listen to warm weather music: Listening to “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” isn’t going to do much for your mental health this time of year. Try some warm weather tunes instead–no one can feel the winter blues during “Don’t Worry, Be Happy.” Find a live reggae or Latin music show, or even a Jimmy Buffett impersonator, if you’re into that.
- Wine and Girl Scout cookies pairings: ‘Tis the season for Girl Scout cookies. Support your local scouts and enjoy a sleeve or two of Thin Mints with a nice bottle of vino. If you have to eat your feelings and drown your sorrows in order to get through winter, it might as well be with appropriately paired, seasonal treats.
- Bake a pie together: If you’ve seen the previews for Labor Day, you know that pie-baking is the new pottery-making, which is to say, it’s the sexiest activity you can do without getting arrested. Plus, February is national Great American Pie Month. January 23 was apparently National Pie Day, and March 14 is Pi Day, so you have ample opportunity to try out this date in the winter months.
- Celebrate Mardi Gras: Mardi Gras is on March 4 which is still technically winter. You can celebrate it with your significant other in many different ways: travel to New Orleans for the official festivities, attend your church’s Fat Tuesday spaghetti dinner, make a king cake together (almost as sexy as baking a pie), or just take turns flashing each other in exchange for beads.
- Draw me wearing this: Bundle up in as many layers as you’d need to walk across town in the horrible winter weather–I’m talking parkas, snow pants, scarves, ski masks, the works. Then give your date a set of oil paints and a canvas, sprawl out on your couch and say “I’d like you to draw me wearing this…wearing…only this…”
- Go see The Lego Movie: This has nothing to do with winter, but this movie just looks like a crowd-pleaser and it’s out in theaters right now. If anything, it can help you escape the cold for a while and pretend you live in a world made of Legos instead of snow, ice and misery.
