Hot, Holy & Humorous

20 Date Nights You Can Do at Home

I remember the days when hubby and I couldn’t leave the house — at least not without a lot of planning, a babysitter and a backup, and a chunk of money it was hard to spend on a simple date. After all, we had a diaper bill to pay!

These days, hubby and I have more freedom, with teenagers who don’t need a babysitter (we think), but we still often enjoy having date night at home. There’s something cozy about hanging out and getting romantic in your own familiar space.

Which is why I was excited to read Creating True Agape: 20 At Home Dates. Written by author and blogger, Cassie Celestain, this book walks couples through 20 do-it-yourself ideas for dates you can plan and execute at home.

Creating True Agape book cover

Each chapter has a focus topic, materials, instructions, discussion, and goals. Cassie is wonderfully detailed, making sure you have everything you need to follow through with the date night idea. All of the dates are designed to get you closer, interacting, and deepening the marital relationship.

From considering your goals to cooking together to an intimacy challenge (yay! right in the Hot, Holy & Humorous wheelhouse), there are sure to be experiences you’ve never done with your spouse that you’d enjoy. Although you might be surprised that my own favorites were probably the spa day and service project ideas.

These Creating True Agape ideas are also the very definition of “cheap date.” The materials needed are things you’ll likely have around your house, like writing utensils, scissors, a bowl, etc. But just because you aren’t laying out a bunch of money doesn’t mean it’s not meaningful. Instead, it will take a bit of effort and planning to make the date happen. But no more planning than getting a babysitter for the little ones or counting your pennies for the week to pay for an outside-the-home date.

I liked how these dates also demonstrate that with some effort and creativity, you can do a lot in your own home to open up communication, deepen your connection, show physical affection, and strengthen your marriage. It simply requires commitment and intentionality. You can start with a resource like Creating True Agape. And working through these ideas might inspire you to come up with a few of your own!

Click right over and purchase this resource! Also, leave a comment below, and I’ll pick two lucky winners on Friday to receive a copy of Creating True Agape: 20 At Home Dates.

Creating True Agape book cover

Creating True Agape includes 20 easy and fun at home dates for you and your spouse to enjoy. With these activities, you will get to spend quality time together and share laughter while facilitating discussions about real life scenarios. These at home dates do more than just give you something to do. They are designed to cultivate communication, intimacy and growth! The dates also were created to include all Love Languages to ensure both people are feeling loved.

Cassie Celestain

Cassie Celestain is a wife, mom, runner and a marriage and family blogger at TrueAgape. She believes respect, trust, understanding and willingness creates happy marriages and families. She strives to keep those things the main focus in her daily life and wants to challenge others to do the same. You can get her free 6-page guide “The Secret to Making your Husband Feel Loved” now.

36 thoughts on “20 Date Nights You Can Do at Home”

  1. What a brilliant idea! We’ve got a 7month old who refuses a bottle plus, like many people with a baby, not much money, meaning we go on hardly any dates anymore so this is definitely a resource I will be checking out.

    1. Hi Trish,
      Our baby is 9 months old so I am right there with you! A few months ago our baby was taking a bottle then two weeks later she wouldn’t take it anymore! I tried for several weeks to reintroduce the bottle to her only to have her continue to reject it. I finally gave in and tried another bottle and she took it like a charm! The one she took was Nuk Orthodontic.
      Either way with or without her taking bottles this is just a stage where at home dates are sometimes the best option!

    2. Congratulations! Your name was randomly chosen to receive Creating True Agape. Many blessings to you and your marriage!

  2. Thanks for recommending this book. As a stay-at-home mom with little ones, cheap dates are definitely hard to come by. Throw in finding baby-sitting, and our nights out end up being few and far between. I am all for finding meaningful ways to connect when resources are tight.

    1. I work from home with a little one so I can relate! At the end of the day or week I for sure want to connect with my hubby, but finding a sitter and actually planning an outing seems like too much energy in that moment. That is why we like at home dates where we still get to connect.

  3. This sounds like just what I need. My husband and I have been married for a year and a half and have tried to make date nights a priority somewhat successfully. We are trying to keep things cheap, but creativity isn’t my forte, and I feel like even when we do have a date night we aren’t really much closer afterwards. We still struggle with connecting below the surface and I realize I need to do something about that sooner rather than later! Hopefully this resource will help. P.S. Thank you for your blog! I don’t think I’ve commented before, but I’m a pretty regular reader who has been encouraged.

    1. I would say these dates could be right up your alley of what you are looking for, AR. My primary Love Language is Quality Time so I enjoy the conversation and connection piece to the date nights. I tried to make sure that happened in all the dates along with including all the Love Languages.

    2. My husband and I have also been married just over a year and a half, but we haven’t been so good at making date nights a priority, thus far. Even though quality time is our primary love language, we also struggle really hard to connect below the surface, and we especially struggle with having conversations (we’re both wallflowers!), which is what I really need to feel connected. The one thing we do best is “story time;” we are both book worms and enjoy the same style books, and since he loves reading to me and I can do work around the house while this happens, we have story time. Once every few months we go out to eat on a date with Groupon, but neither of us are very creative in the way of dating and pursuing each other, unfortunately, and it’s caused some struggles between us because I need conversation and him to show me that he wants me. Ah. Sorry for rambling. I was just struck by how every word of your post applies to my husband and me as well. I’m learning so much about God and going deeper into my faith through marriage; it truly is a sanctifying blessing that points us back to God so much. I’m so thankful for these ladies whose blogs are such an invaluable resource in this area.

  4. Since my husband does not like to go away from home, this book would be very helpful in planning dates to enjoy each other’s company at home

  5. Thank you, J, for your write up on Creating True Agape! I am glad you enjoyed the ideas. We have enjoyed hearing stories about how these dates are allowing couples to discuss topics that otherwise might be a bit hard to bring up.
    Like you mentioned about a time when the kids where young and it is hard to get out of the house. Ryan and I are now in that stage with our baby, so at home dates are a must for us!

  6. This looks like a great resource! I have a hard time being creative when thinking of at-home dates.

  7. Love your blog. Your insight and humor have been a great blessing to me (and thus, my family!).
    My husband and I recently arranged for “child swapping” with some friends so both couples could enjoy more dates. I’m not very creative so a book like this would be a great resource.

  8. Great ideas for home dates are always welcome. Makes you remember them more as you walk past the room you had them in too 🙂 Thanks for the chance to win.

  9. This sounds like a great book! My love language is Quality Time, so the meaningful dates are so appealing to me!

    1. My Love Language is Quality Time also, Ashley! I think you will really love these date ideas. Within the 20 dates they include all 5 Love Languages, but after hearing many women saying they wanted more meaningful conversations and time with their spouse I tried to incorporate that into all that dates. So someone whose Love Language is Quality Time should REALLY like these ideas!

  10. This definitely looks up our alley… Husband and I are newlyweds with not a lot of cash reserve (despite 3 jobs between us), and I’m a major Quality Time person. This book is definitely going on my list of things to read!

  11. We have a child that doesn’t do well with babysitters so often we just try to do something special at home. More ideas of dates at home are always welcome!

  12. This sounds like a great resource! We have a toddler and a baby and our families are on the other side of the country (continent, I guess!), so we always have to find a babysitter when we go out.

  13. Looks like a great book with wonderful ideas! Can always use more ideas for date nights 🙂

  14. Kristie Miller

    I work a full-time job 7:30-4:30, he’s a police officer who works 12 hour shifts back and forth between 7am-7pm and 7pm-7am. Between us (blended family) we have full custody of 5 kids, ages 1 to 13. Our only break is every other weekend when we have only the baby, but those weekends he’s always on duty. We have no time, or money in our budget for dates. I would love a resource to help us plan inexpensive dates that we can do at home (even if the baby is there).

  15. This just blesses my soul! My husband is a homebody and planning dates is not in the forefront of his mind….this book is a great idea! 🙂
    Thanks for sharing!

    1. Congratulations! Your name was randomly chosen to receive Creating True Agape. Many blessings to you and your marriage!

  16. This sounds like a great book! I am getting married soon and a book like this would definitely be a helpful resource.

  17. i would love this book! Just like so many we have little ones, our first wouldn’t take a bottle and now baby #2 is 4 weeks old (they are 13 months apart!). I’m finding with the business of keeping two babies alive and healthy that I need help being intentional about time with hubby. It’s also hard for us to get out on a date as you might expect, not enough $$ or babysitters available easy.

  18. No more boring Friday nights! 🙂 Sounds like a great book! Thanks J for “advertising” it!!

  19. Baby Land can be very limiting! I’d love new at-home-date-night ideas. Our favorite is eating homemade pizza while watching episodes of Castle. Hope our library purchases this book – in fact, I’ll request that they do so!

  20. I’d be sooooo thrilled to win this book!! Married for over a decade, two school age kids with activities to juggle, plus part -time employment & full-time wife and mother….I could use a resource with fantastic ideas to help me be more creative & intentional about spending quality time with my man.
    Btw…thanks for writing this blog. It has been a tremendous blessing!

  21. Due to limited resources I have been on a hunt for at home date night ideas. This book would be a great help as I’m not that creative.

  22. This looks like a great book. I love being home, but I also love a Date Night. Finances are also a factor, too, so inexpensive ideas are great for us!

  23. Sounds like a great book! My husband and I have two teenagers still at home, so our “going out” usually happens, but sometimes I really like to stay home and would love some creative ideas.

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