12 Cute Galentine’s Day Ideas for Teens to Celebrate Besties with Love
Written By: Marybeth Bock
Valentine’s Day isn’t just about romance. It’s a day to celebrate those you love! And, who better for teen girls to celebrate than their best friends who do life with them every single day!
The best Galentine’s Day ideas incorporate everything you and your friends love! Whether you love celebrating at your favorite restaurant, a movie night in (with all your favorite snacks, of course), or an adventure to get your hearts pounding, spend this coming Valentine’s Day celebrating and honoring the beautiful friendships that matter in your life.
There are a ton of fun Galentine’s Day ideas… seriously, it’s all about what you and your friends want to do. To inspire you, we rounded up a few fun (and mostly not-so-expensive) ideas! Check out these fun Galentine’s Day ideas for teens you’re gonna love!
1. “Secret Galentine” Gift Exchange
Similar to a Secret Santa gift exchange, everyone who’s attending the Galentine gathering puts their name into a bag and each guest draws one name to buy a gift for. Since teens typically don’t have a ton of money, it doesn’t have to be a “spendy” gift. To make it easy (and affordable), cap the gift buying at no more than $10 or $15. It’s also fun to choose a theme, like hearts, personal care items, or even do-it-yourself handmade crafts. To ramp up the fun, do the exchange White Elephant style, where the gifts can be “stolen” from others.
2. Make Your Own Pizza Party
Grab ready-made pizza dough at the grocery store and a few favorite toppings for a fun pizza-making night! Just for fun, challenge everyone to form their pizzas into heart shapes. This tutorial from The Kitchn will let you in on the secret of creating the perfect heart-shaped crust. To add even more fun, make a few festive Valentine’s Day mocktails!
3. Spa Day at Home
Plan a spa day (or evening) at home with facemasks, manicures, and pedicures. A Cultivated Nest blog has 16 recipes for easy and luxurious DIY homemade facemasks. Create the perfect relaxing atmosphere with scented candles, soothing music, and “spa snacks” like these adorable Marshmallow Nail Polish Bottle treats from the Rose Bakes blog.
4. Movies and PJs Night
Host a movie night featuring your friends’ favorite flicks and plenty of movie-night snacks. How about a funny comedy, teen romance movies, juicy docuseries, or a couple of horror flicks? Snuggle up in your coziest jammies and soft blankets for a fun evening celebrating “girl time!”
5. Valentine’s Day Cupcake Decorating
Who doesn’t love decorating and eating cupcakes? It’s the perfect Galentine’s Day activity for teenage girls! Let them treat it like a holiday cookie exchange where everyone brings a box of cake mix (or an already-baked dozen cupcakes), frosting, and something fun for decorating like sprinkles and edible glitter. Cake decorating tools and kits are easy to find, inexpensive, and quite easy to learn how to use! Check out these fun Valentine’s Day decorated cupcake ideas!
6. Fondue Night
The fun thing about doing a fondue night is the dipping options are endless! Try savory with melted cheese and salty snacks or try sweet with melted chocolate that’s perfect for dipping marshmallows, fresh fruit, or pound cake. Whatever tempts your tastebuds! Check out the how-to for this wonderful fondue platter pictured below!Here are some tasty fondue dipping ideas from the Baked By Clo blog.
7. Valentine’s Craft Night
Round up your favorite gal pals and hunker down for a fun craft night! The ideas are endless and it will give all the girls time to laugh, have fun and just be together.Tie-Dye Heart T-Shirt shared by Crafty Chica. Here are 15 MORE Valentine’s Day crafts your teen might like!
8. Bestie Selfie Shoot
We all know how teen girls love an excuse to dress up (or down) and take ALL the pix. Have them choose a theme or two (outfit changes highly encouraged) and get snapping with their phones or a Polaroid camera. Some fun theme ideas are All Red and/or Pink, Western, Glamour shots, and Dress as your Favorite Celebrity. A big, colorful balloon garland arch kit like this one on Amazon is inexpensive and is the perfect backdrop for all those fabulous poses.
9. Besties Breakfast, Brunch or Burgers
Galentine’s Day wouldn’t be complete without diving into your favorite food! And, since a fancy dinner can get expensive, why not plan a morning out for breakfast or brunch or an afternoon at your favorite burger place? Whether you dive into waffles and eggs or a juicy burger piled high with all the fixings, this is your day to hang out with and enjoy the besties that make life better.
10. Take a Class Together
If staying home sounds too boring, why not gather your friends and sign up for a fun class? Do you and your friends love to cook? Take a fun cooking or baking class. Do you love to stay fit and healthy? Take a Yoga class together. Do you want to learn Karate, how to scrapbook, or how to paint? Sign up! It’s a fun way to spend quality time with your best friends while doing something you all enjoy!
11. Virtual Game Night
We know – it can be challenging to get a group of teens together on a weeknight with school and extracurricular activities getting in the way. So, if it’s just too difficult to gather your friends together in person, plan a virtual game night instead! The girls can play online games, trivia, or virtual board games together. The popular Jackbox Games offer a wide variety of party games that can be played by a group over a Zoom call or Twitch stream.
12. Plan an Adventure
The possibilities here are truly endless! (Since Valentine’s Day falls mid-week this year, you might have to plan this for the weekend.) Go roller skating, head to an amusem*nt park to ride roller coasters or bumper cars, go zip-lining, hiking, canoeing, or bike riding. Plan a picnic, head to the beach or mountains for the day, or head to an indoor water park… you get the idea! Grab your favorite gals and pick your adventure for a day of fun, friends, and laughs!
No matter how your favorite teen girl decides to celebrate Galentine’s Day with her friends, praise her for celebrating and making special time for those amazing relationships. If they have even one or two special friends they can count on, they have a wonderful gift!
About Marybeth Bock:
Marybeth Bock, MPH, is a Mom to two young adults and one delightful hound dog. She has logged time as a military spouse, childbirth educator, college instructor, and freelance writer. She lives in Arizona and thoroughly enjoys research and writing – as long as iced coffee is involved. Her work can be found on numerous websites and in two books. Follow her onFacebookandInstagram.
If you enjoyed reading, “12 Cute Galentine’s Day Ideas for Teensto Celebrate Besties with Love” here are a few other posts you might enjoy reading:
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