12 Dates

I was perusing Oprah's site looking to see if she had her Favorite Things holiday show yet, and found this Thrifty Holiday topic instead.

I liked this 12 Dates of Christmas idea. It would go along well participating in the Advent Conspiracy - as our church is - where the focus is on giving relationally, and giving away the money that you save by doing that, to projects such as Living Water International.

For the 12 Dates of Christmas, you go on 12 dates with you special someone as your Christmas gift to each other. I would prefer to spread the dates out over the course of the year, one per month, rather than do them all in December. (That might be just too much togetherness for some people.) It would be fun to make the dates outings that are seasonally related. You could make them as inexpensive as you wish. The best part is it would be stuff to look forward to all year long!

Here are some of my ideas:

(If you are like us, you already do some of these things spontaneously. But I think it is important to be intentional about planning them in advance, especially if you have to schedule a babysitter.)

January, February: concert, ice skating

March, April, May: participate in a race or competition together, go for a walk and picnic, volunteer together

June, July, August: outdoor theater, pick blueberries/blackberries, go fishing

September, October: ride bikes and get ice cream, attend a sporting event

November, December: look at Christmas lights, go sledding

Other ideas:

bake together

get coffee

play putt-putt/mini-golf or real golf

play tennis

go camping

Whatever you like to do would work. Decide together, or take turns choosing!

Photo from stockvault.net