Dress up, put on your favorite lipstick, and live it up this February 13th (no date necessary!).

Cupid's aim isn't always fair, true, or necessary. 

If you're a lady without a Valentine, there's no reason to loathe or lament February 14th: 

• You don't need a romantic love interest to celebrate love; 

• we can always buy our own chocolate, roses or chocolate roses;

• Galentine's Day is lovingly celebrated for all women on February 13th. 

Galentine's Day is a femme-first event popularized by the quasi-holiday's patron saint, Amy Poehler of Saturday Night Live and Parks and Recreation fame. 

We'll talk about moms, single ladies and coupled up females, too, in today's brief blog post on Galentine's Day, February 13th.

The purpose? To celebrate female empowerment and friendship. 

What Is Galentine's Day?

Amy Poehler and the writers of Parks and Recreation made up Galentine's Day as a lady's response to living single-but-ready-to-mingle on Valentine's Day. Ladies–and that includes moms–deserve a chance to party–even if they don't have a man on their arm. When women get together to have fun, anything can happen…including finding a man for that arm of theirs. 

It's a chance to be a little bit naughty–or maybe real naughty depending how good you've been all year long. A chance to celebrate female empowerment when Galentine's Day is your night and not to be shared with some guy.

This year, the day before V-Day personally I'm planning to spend the afternoon into the evening hanging out at the pool with some other moms-- celebrating female friendship and what it means to be a strong woman.

I don't know what will happen. Some of these moms had my husband drinking beer from the nipple of a baby bottle a few weeks ago. 

Have you ever also thought that women ought to give themselves permission to let loose more often? Maybe not to the extreme of a “Bad Moms” movie, but come on-- a responsible mom behaving a bit badly ought to feel totally justified in some shenanigans once in a while.

Want to celebrate Galentine's Day? 

Here are some ideas for your and your gal pals to try-- 5 G-Day options for low-key get-togethers you could probably put together with a few text messages.

Galentine’s Day Ladies Get Together Idea 1: Leading Ladies on the Loose

Host a Galentine's movie double header this February 13th. Invite your besties over for an empowering everybody-shows-off-something-delicious potluck or open up your wallet and spring for pizza. Tell your girls to pop into their comfiest sweats or pajamas and head over for a relaxing movie night with treats, wine, and inspiring films like these:

• Thelma and Louise

• Beaches

• The Women

• Steel Magnolias

• The First Wives Club

• A League of Their Own

• The Joy Luck Club

• Wonder Woman

• Nine to Five

• The Color Purple

• Queen of Katwe

• Erin Brockovich
  
  

Don't forget to set out a big heart-shaped box of chocolates for your favorite ladies to enjoy!

Galentine’s Day Ladies Get Together Idea 2: Romantic Dinner Date for 10

Singletons enjoy romantic ambience too! Tell several of your friends to get all dolled up for a romantic date night together. Angle or paired up it doesn’t matter, ask ‘em all. Choose a fancy French bistro or a culinary hot spot in a city near you to enjoy a night on the town. Wear your newest dress, sexy suit, or club-worthy getup and live it up by ordering a double dessert!

Start the process early if you have kids. Once 2 or 3 of your friends have arranged childcare with the man in her life, and published the coup on the group text, the rest of the guys will be motivated enough to fall in line.

Galentine’s Day Ladies Get Together Idea 3: Dessert Swap

Speaking of dessert, consider hosting a dessert swap with your best lady friends. Invite your mom, sisters, cousins, in-laws, work colleagues, whomever for a sweetest-thing tasting event for the sweetest gals you know. 

You’ll ask each of your lovely ladies to bring a dessert to share-- and tell them they can pick it up at the bakery or restaurant and receive nothing but joy without judgment. Girl scout cookies or a Marie Calendar apple pie plucked from its lonely spot forgettenly stored in the garage freezer? Sounds divine.  Costco cake and cheesecake are so welcome! And those Entemann’s cheese danish strudels? German chocolate ice cream from Baskin Robbins? Yes, please. 

No reason to dirty the kitchen if you don’t wanna! Need some ideas for what to make if you’re up for a bake? Heart-shaped waffles topped with vanilla ice cream, Creme brulee, cherry cheesecake, red velvet cake, and chocolate cream pie all look much fancier than the amount of time and effort that go into making them might suggest (always a plus!). Decadent treats can help you fuel a delectable Galentine's Day with your gals. You might want to have some delicious drinks or cocktails on hand too. 

Galentine’s Day Ladies Get Together Idea 4: Paint and Sip

Wine and paint go together better than you might think! A paint and sip (or gulp) party allows your gal pals to unwind and unleash their creativity on canvas. Invite the ladies to paint a scene outside your window or buy a sample canvas and invite them to create their own similar but unique version. 

You don’t really need a franchise studio for this, okay? 

Simply buy canvas packs at your nearest crafts store and some inexpensive acrylic paints and paintbrushes and you’re all set. The great thing about this event is that each lady will have a special keepsake from her Galentine's day or night-- reminding them how much fun they had, and providing a tangible anchor to start a new, possibly annual gals night tradition (next year’s theme? Who knows…but there are plenty to choose from!).

Galentine’s Day Ladies Get Together Idea 5: Tickets

Find a concert, play, or sporting event and invite your girlfriends to pick up tickets with you. 

Be sure it's racy, saucy, or edgy, because you ladies want to have fun! You might even be able to get a cheaper group rate if you can get enough gals together. When you get tickets to an event, you don't have to worry about entertainment. You and your group can just head out for a great time and make a Galentine's Day to remember.

Of these 5, this might be the only one that’s tough to pull off on the same day, day of, just by sending out a few texts to some of your gal pals. So yeah, there may not be an event or what’s out there could be sold out-- but there’s always next year to get fancy with tickets. Maybe this year you just get the tradition started with something simple?

Let’s not stress about Valentine's Day when there's Galentine's Day to look forward to every year the day before. 

The point of G-Day is that your love for your gals is just as valid, just as meaningful as romantic love. If you celebrate Galentine's Day, be sure to send us a message to tell us what you did.

Love,
Mrs. Cubic Zirconia