#Palentinesday. The Better Valentine’s Day for Friends.

It seems like everyone’s going crazy about ever-so-cute stuffed animals, chocolates, roses, and romantic nights out on the town. Even school kids often have started to exchange Valentines cards filled with candy! It’s easy to feel like the odd one out when everyone else is on cloud number nine with their significant other. Do not despair, there’s hope for you as well!

More and more singles celebrate Palentine’s (or Galentine’s) Day the day before Valentine’s Day. The idea was invented by Leslie Knope, a character in the series “Parks and Recreation”. Leslie loves her friend so much that she creates the “best day of the year”, Galentine’s Day on February 13th.

After some of the actresses of the series celebrated the day together, Galentine’s Day has now won over the hearts of many a gal in real life.

Picking up on the idea, men and mixed circles of friends celebrate their friendship on February 13th – on Palentine’s Day.

If you feel like celebrating your platonic love, then we have a few ideas for you!

Carb-loading party

What’s better than wolfing down lots of calories with your pals? Whether it’s a pizza party, pasta fair or a gourmet breakfast – on the day of celebrating friendship, you should indulge in a massive food feast.

Consider mixing your favorite cocktails with it to add more flavour the event.

Pajama party

When was the last time you went to a movie together? Exactly! When you get older (young parents will know), the long evenings with popcorn and lots of laughter are few and far between.

Have a pajama party! Leave the kids with the babysitter, borrow the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy, build a mattress camp and make yourself comfortable with popcorn and coke. You’re grown up, so you can stay up as long as you want and turn your Coke into a Cuba Libre with rum and lime.

Read out loud

In “Parks & Recreation” Leslie writes an essay for each of her friends in which she explains why she loves a certain person so much. This is of course a very nice and somehow totally romantic idea. Especially when you read it out loud, you’ll probably end up feeling a few tears running down your blushed cheeks. If you go way back to your childhood days, we have 3 more ideas for an entertaining reading night among friends:

• Diary reading: Read your most embarrassing diary entries to each other. Laughter guaranteed.
• Love letters: Read love letters from your teenage years. Pure romance!
• Friends book: Read the funniest entries from letters and notes you used to write each other in school. You’re guaranteed to find yourself cracking up with laughter!

Bachelors without farewell

You are (maybe not so young anymore), you are sociable, and you feel like painting the town red? Why not organize something like a bachelor party without a wedding afterwards?

Turn the spirit of a bachelor’s night into your very own Palentine’s Day! Bachelors’ shirts go Palentine’s Shirts, and instead of bringing lots of condoms, you could make custom friendship rings and finish the night carousing in the pub.

These are just a few ideas, of course. Whatever your friends and you do on Palentine’s Day – or if you celebrate your friendship on any other day of the year – cherish your friendship! Friends are the pop in the corn, the chocolate in the box and the one people that make the night out more fun than anyone else.