Dinner & a Movie How-to

How To Have Dinner and a Movie at Home

Adventure dates are exciting, romantic dinners are... romantic! But sometimes what you need as a couple is a quiet, interactive evening at home. Try one (or all!) of these dinner and a movie date ideas.

Why you should do dinner and a movie dates at home sometimes...

You’ve done the fancy restaurant with three forks and nervous conversation. You’ve also done the movie date, sitting side-by-side in the theatre and viewing a film together while you were miles apart in your individual thoughts.

Now what you need is an interactive date, one that is comfortable and low-pressure. Nothing too formal, awkward or without room for some healthy conversation.

“Dinner at home and a DVD on the couch is a good date night idea for a couple whether they have recently met or if they’ve been together for some time,” says Kimberly Ellington, a dating and relationship coach for The Art of Charm. “If the two people involved let too much pressure build up – by sitting across from each other at a table, silently eating and drinking, asking interview-style questions that bore even themselves – it can go downhill quickly.”

Ellington believes that best way to do dinner and a DVD date is to make it as interactive as possible. She offers these tips to create a dinner-and-a-movie date that will be full of action, inspire conversation and hopefully lead to a great game of snuggle-bunnies when it’s all over.

Step 1: Set the scene

Jazz up your dinner-and-a-movie date at home by setting the scene. Create a comfy little nest in your living room. You don’t want one person on the couch and the other across the room, right? So set your coffee table with beverage glasses and napkins right in front of the love seat or couch so there’s no mistaking where your date should sit. Make sure you have some squishy pillows and maybe even a throw blanket for snuggling under!

Step 2: Rearrange the space

If you two have been together for a while, it’s huge fun to re-arrange the furniture. Couples tend to fall into patterns after being together for a while, so instead of both of you flopping down where you usually do, shake it up a bit! Slide the love seat to the center of the room, set up the area like your own private screening room – and don’t forget the popcorn!

Step 3: Shop together for the food

“One great way to jazz up dinner and a movie at home is by cooking together – but then take it back even one more step. Just as you don’t greet a date by inviting them in for sex (at least not most often!) you don’t want a dinner-and-a-movie date to start by having the movie on pause with take-out sitting on the table getting cold. Shop together first. Eating is life-affirming, just like sex is, so the choosing and preparing of food is like the foreplay for the whole evening. Have a simple recipe picked out, make sure you have the proper cookware, and then head to the farmers market or grocery store.

*Choose a special salad

One dinner idea Ms. Ellington recommends is having a simple but different salad. Stay away from the iceberg lettuce mix. Go simple with a bag of mixed baby greens, feta, a few berries and some walnuts. Intense flavours, a variety of textures and a simple preparation are the way to go. Any grocery store will have basic vinaigrette, and that will complement ANY choice of ingredients.

*For the main dish – keep it simple.

Don’t try to impress anyone with a sauce that takes three hours to reduce unless you’re a chef and you started it earlier in the day, notes Ms. Ellington. Most grocery stores will have some gourmet bottled sauces that will take any protein to the next level without being labour-intensive. Read the label and buy a small sprig of one of the herbs already in the sauce to add as a garnish at the end and you’ll have an elegant presentation as well as a burst of fresh flavour.

*Dessert should be the easiest part.

Fruit sorbets are cool, delicious and light. Get a couple of different flavours. You can serve them in elegant stemware if that’s your style. Or create your own movie intermission halfway through the flick and scoop some into Dixie cups to nibble and share as you watch the end of the movie. (Sweet lips = sweet kisses!)

Step 4: Pick a movie!

Three DVDs Ellington recommends are The Princess Bride, Hitch and Jerry Maguire.

The Princess Bride is a classic adventure-love story, with plenty of action, laughs and “twue wuv” (true love). It’s an adult fairy tale, which is a great mindset for both parties on a date. The Man in Black’s rescue of his true love is just as heart-warming and pulse-inducing whether you’re brand-new to dating each other or if you’ve been together for a while.

Hitch is a story about a dating coach who is helping a goofy, hapless man find love and ends up finding love himself along the way, notes Ms. Ellington. It’s a rom-com, but with Will Smith and Kevin James in charge of the comedy, there’s plenty of “guy moments” to glide smoothly along with the romance. This movie brings up a lot of preconceived notions that men and women have about each other, so it’s great for inspiring conversation and perhaps even some good-natured debate, which can be great for raising the sexual tension in the room!

Jerry Maguire has great laughs and wonderful snuggle moments – not to mention two good-looking leads for both sexes to enjoy. Tom Cruise is at his passionate best in this movie, and a very fit Cuba Gooding, Jr. does a great job as well. This is a passionate movie the entire way through with a hugely inspiring and emotional ending – just right for happy hugs and whatever might come after.