All I want for Valentine's Day is my best friend's Tiffany charm necklace
Make this Valentine's Day an excuse to do cool things and swap cool vintage things with your friends...and maybe with some senior citizens too!
Happy almost Valentine's/Galentine's day! What’s better than turning a holiday made for an overpriced meal into a night in with friends?
Here are seven Valentine's Day activity ideas to add fun, vintage Baby-G watches, and deeper connections with your friends and your inner child too!
First, get dressed up. It sounds tedious, but I promise it will be fun!
Each idea/night, I believe, should start with something I was inspired by from elementary school birthday parties. There was this place in the middle of the San Fernando Valley, maybe between Woodland Hills and Tarzana, where we’d get our makeup done (basically a pink lip and baby blue eyeshadow), pick out a Cinderella-style dress, and drink tea. (Valley girls, if you remember the name and have your photo from it, please let me know!)
Inspired by what I thought was the most fun day ever as a 7-year-old, why not head to the Mac counter or Sephora and get your makeup done before your activities?
Then, zip up a dress you may only save for black-tie events, your mom’s vintage bridal party dress, or a Goodwill find picked out by your friends. Already, your weekday night is more fun than scrolling. (I know I mentioned these would be nights in, but maybe, just for this part, venture to the local strip mall.)
Now that you have your fake eyelashes and flower-print floor-length gown… let’s start the activities!
Valentine’s Day Friend Activities
1. Jewelry Swap
If you didn’t know, I love a clothing and accessories swap and even co-founded an app dedicated to it—Lucky Sweater.
For this swap, have your group bring old jewelry you all no longer wear. Maybe call up your mom first and have her search in the boxes underneath your bed. Think the Tiffany & Co. "Return to Tiffany" heart tag toggle chain necklace (please, no friendships ending over who gets this in the swap), a Tarina Tarintino Hello Kitty ring, those stretchy Italian charm bracelets from the mall, mood rings, Baby-G watches, stretchy black chokers, slap bracelets, pooka shell necklaces, and one lonely side of a best friend necklace heart.
If you bring one piece, you can take one from the swap; if you bring two, take two, and so on.
I hope you leave with a sleeve of power bead bracelets!
2. Valentine's Day Candy Grams
Remember waiting to see what Trevor G. or David C. would write on their folded and torn-out Michael Jordan cardboard Valentine's Day card that they would put into your pink and red cut-out heart-decorated box?!
Bring back these memories by heading to Etsy for the vintage ones or Target for other options, too! Write a personal note to each friend and include a piece of candy.
These will make great desk decorations and remind you how much your friends love you when you’re cleaning out your inbox.
3. Secret Cupid
Like White Elephant, everyone brings one special gift within a certain price range. For this night, let’s call it Secret Cupid and make it a used gift/toy from the '90s/early 2000s—a Furby, a Sanrio pencil case, Spice Girls hit clips, a vintage Limited Too tank top with a built-in bra, a Juicy Couture terry cloth dress, a Caboodles makeup case, a Tamagotchi!
The rules:
Wrap the gift and head over to your friend’s place. Each person draws numbers to determine the order in which they will go. The person who picked #1 selects a gift from the pool and opens it. The following people can choose to either pick an unwrapped gift from the pool or steal a previous person’s gift. Anyone who gets their gift stolen can do the same—choose a new gift or steal from someone else.
To keep things moving along, there are a couple of limits on gift swapping, according to Whiteelephantrules.com:
A present can only be stolen once per turn, which means people who have a gift stolen from them have to wait to get it back.
After three swaps, the turn automatically comes to an end (otherwise, things could drag on for a long time).
After everyone has had a turn, the first person gets a chance to swap the gift they are holding for any other opened gift. Anyone whose gift is stolen may steal from someone else (as long as that person hasn’t been stolen from yet). When someone declines to steal a gift, the game comes to an end.
Have fun, and don’t be too mean!
4. Vintage Game Night
Here’s an idea to get deeper with your friends—by going vintage!
One night in high school, my friends and I found the board game Group Therapy in one of our parent’s closets. We cried. We bonded. I wrote my college essay about it. And I did get into college. Even The NY Times agrees, “If you want to hear about your guests’ daddy issues — without irony — break out the late ’60s board game Group Therapy.” 😬
Another interesting option is Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus the Game, which I’m realizing is easier to find and a good option if you have couples in the mix too.
5. TRL
Inspired by the questions Pat Reagan and Catherine Cohen ask their guests on the Seek Treatment podcast (rec a listen), have each friend choose three music videos to play the night of your hang—one that represents who they were, one for who they are, and one for who they are becoming. Hang out, dance. Celebrate y’all!
6. Elevated Kid’s Food
Inspired by my friend Dani’s recent dinner, bring a food item you loved as a kid and add an adult or elevated twist. Your favorite Kraft mac n' powered cheese becomes animal-shaped pasta alla vodka, gummy worms in Oreo, and jello pudding dirt welcome some Bailey’s…okay, they don’t all have to just include alcohol, but hopefully, you get the idea.
7. Seniors Love Their Best Friends Too
Okay, this last one, you will have to leave the house, but I promise it’s worth it. Call up a local senior living center (or does one of your grandparents live nearby?!). See if you can come over in February to host a Valentine’s Day event. Make decorations, such as cut-out colored hearts or garland chains per event. Play “Name That Love Song” and put on popular love songs from their high school days and have fun guessing the titles. Here is a playlist of 1950s love songs - thanks, Spotify!
I hope you have the best time this Galentine's/Valentine's. And you can do these activities whenever, too, whenever a bar or a dinner out doesn’t call your name…or in the theme of love… call you by your name... okay, and with that, it’s time to go back to work for me… :)
P.S. - As a thank you for reading until the end, here are some Valentine's Day grams I made that I’d love to have you share in your Instagram Stories. Tag the Brooke to your Tana, the Trisha to your Moses, and more!
