Free Ideas: Invent a Holiday

🚀 Over these next few days, you'll design a celebration for a made-up holiday. Today, you’ll give your event a name. Pick one of your partner’s favorite foods or drinks to center the event on. Then, choose a charming name that alludes to that item and to a location at home. For example:

• Cookies on the Couch
• Chai and Chill
• Sunday Morning Jam
• Brownie Break for Two
• Prosecco on the Porch

👉 Go ahead and jot down a name.

🚀 Your celebration has a name. Now, you’ll design another facet of it: a playlist.

Think about what kind of mood you want to evoke (e.g. playful, energizing, calming, cozy, etc.). Choose songs that evoke that mood and that are meaningful to you both (e.g. favorite songs, songs from when you were first dating, songs that make you laugh).

👉 Pick 5-10 songs total and create a playlist on your platform of choice.

🚀 So far, you have a name for your holiday and a playlist. Now, you’ll design two light activities.

First, choose an activity to start with. It could be hands-on, like a crossword puzzle or a dance party. Or it could be conversational, like each sharing a rose, bud, and thorn from your week (i.e. a success, a challenge, and something you’re looking forward to).

Next, design an ending. Come up with a small tradition with which to end the gathering. For example:

• “Each Prosecco on the Porch ends with a slow dance to Taylor Swift.”

• “As is custom, Cookies on the Couch ends with a traditional fist bump.”

👉 Choose an activity to start with and a small, quirky tradition to end with.

🚀 Your celebration is nearly ready to go. Now, it’s time to invite your partner. (Tomorrow, you’ll set everything up.)

Your invitation will give them something exciting but a little bit mysterious to look forward to. For example:

• “You’re invited to a Brownie Break for Two. Meet by the couch on Tuesday at 4:30 PM. Bring your coziest blanket.”

• “This card grants 1 person admission to Chai and Chill — Monday, 7:30 PM, no phones allowed.”

• “Meet me on Saturday at 6:30 PM, for Prosecco on the Porch. The password is ‘more wine.’”

👉 Text or handwrite an invitation, proposing a specific place and time.

🚀 Once your partner confirms and the day of your holiday arrives, let’s get everything set up.

Here’s how to make the space feel special:

• Get any food & drinks
• Display them nicely
• Tidy the space up
• Dim the lights
• Light a candle
• Lay out a blanket
• Queue up the playlist you created
• Make a sign with the event name
• Get flowers

And here are a few pointers for hosting:

• If possible, make it a phone-free space. Tuck your phones in a different room, in a drawer, or in a bag.

• Start with the food and drink, then transition into the activity you planned. Use your intuition to decide when to end the gathering, with the ritual you chose.

• Finally, you can decide if you’d like to hold this gathering again (e.g. on the first Saturday of each month, on March 17th every year, etc.).

👉 Go ahead and work through the checklist above, to get everything set up.