Valentine’s Day is a day all about love – but it’s not for everyone. If you’re single, the floods of gushy messages, chocolate hearts and flowers might leave you cold. But there’s still something to celebrate this February – Galentine’s Day. A day all about ladies supporting ladies, it’s the perfect opportunity to celebrate with your best girl gang and show your friends just how much you love and appreciate them.
It’s not often that something from pop culture sticks around long enough to become a yearly tradition. But the unofficial Parks and Recreation holiday, Galentine’s Day, has become an absolute favourite of women across the world, giving them an excuse to celebrate their friendship and share Galentine’s Day cards and gifts with each other.
What’s Galentine’s Day?
Galentine’s Day is a day to celebrate your best girl friends. It’s a day to give thanks and appreciate your best friends, your sister, your mum, or any woman in your life that you want to celebrate.
Rather than celebrating your significant other, Galentine’s Day is all about celebrating that unique love that only friends can have. The kind of love that means you can chat about everything and nothing until the early hours of the morning, or be that ever-present shoulder for someone to cry on after a massive heartbreak.
It doesn’t matter if you have an army of girlfriends or a small, close-knit squad, it’s about enjoying time with each other, and maybe swapping a few Galentine’s gifts. Galentine’s Day and Galentine’s Day gifts are proving so popular with girls around the world that searches for Galentine’s Day gifts and ideas have sky-rocketed ahead of Valentine’s Day.
When is Galentine’s Day?
Galentine’s Day is held on the 13th February, the day before Valentine’s Day. Galentine’s Day 2022 falls on a Sunday, which is a great excuse to host a (virtual) get together with your friends!
Where does Galentine’s Day come from?
We’re used to holidays being adapted from old religious holidays or ancient traditions – but Galentine’s Day is a little bit different, because it was invented by… a fictional character. That’s right – Galentine’s Day was invented by Leslie Knope from Parks and Recreation.
Parks and Recreation (which is well worth a watch!) is a sitcom about the Parks Department of Pawnee, a fictional town in Indiana, USA. The second season’s 16th episode was called ‘Galentine’s Day’, and aired – appropriately – on the week of Valentine’s Day, February 11th 2010. In the episode, the sweet and earnest lead character, Leslie Knope, throws her annual ‘Galentine’s Day’ brunch party for her female friends, held on the day before Valentine’s Day. In her own words:
“Every February 13th, my lady friends and I leave our husbands and our boyfriends at home, and we just come and kick it, breakfast-style. Ladies celebrating ladies.”
Since the episode aired, Galentine’s Day has transcended the airwaves to become a bona fide social media phenomenon, all about – as Leslie said – ladies celebrating ladies.
If you’re single, or just not into big shows of affection, Valentine’s Day can sometimes feel overwhelming. So repurposing it into a sweet celebration of your best girls is a perfect way to celebrate, as well as a great excuse to get together with your girl gang for brunch!
Image source and credit: NBC
Is Galentine’s day just for ladies?
While Galentine’s Day is technically reserved as a day of empowerment for women everywhere, it’s quickly become an occasion celebrated by everyone. Let’s face it, we’ve all got friends of every sex and gender, and there’s no reason we can’t share the love with them.
Galentine’s Day Ideas
You can celebrate Galentine’s Day in any way you want. The only rule is that you need to celebrate it with friends and let them know how much you care about them. This could be an eloquent, 5,000-word essay, or it could be a simple funny card: it’s up to you.
Start a new tradition that you can enjoy with your best girl friends for years to come. Here are a few of our favourite Galentine’s Day ideas for 2022 – corralling them into one place via WhatsApp (or wherever your group chat takes place) is all on you though, we’re afraid. We’re sure we don’t need to give you too much advice on how to plan a night out, so here are some alternative Galentine’s Day ideas you might not have considered.
Galentine’s brunch
Take a leaf out of Leslie Knope’s breakfast-food loving book and host a brunch for your best girls. Head to your favourite boozy brunch place, hang out with a glass of something bubbly, and enjoy your favourite breakfast foods while you catch up. Or, since Galentine’s Day is only a couple of days before Pancake Day on the 16th February, why not practice your pancake-flipping together and host a prosecco and pancake party at someone’s house? Hopefully they don’t mind pancakes stuck to the ceiling.
Secret Cupid
Why should the people in relationships get all the Valentine’s presents and chocolate? Organise a Secret Cupid with your gals instead. Like Secret Santa, this way everyone gets something for Galentine’s or Valentine’s, even if you’re single! Pull names out of a hat and send each other a Galentine’s Day card – and to make your gifting even easier, with thortful you can add flowers or chocolates to your card with a single click.
Game night
For a night that’s guaranteed to cause giggles, plan a game night. No, that doesn’t mean you all need to suddenly develop first-person-shooter skills – if your group aren’t keen gamers, there’s still plenty of games you can play. You might be surprised how much fun you have! The traditional games of charades and Pictionary might sound lame, but when you’re a few glasses of wine deep, you’d be surprised how hilarious trying to mime ‘The Lion King’ becomes…
Wine tasting
If you and your friends love nothing more than a gossip over a bottle of wine, why not host a Galentine’s Day wine tasting? A week before, each of you recommend your favourite bottles – then trade your suggestions so everyone gets to try something new. Then make sure you’ve got some cheese and grapes handy and settle in for a night of sophisticated wine reviewing.
Prosecco, pizza and pampering pyjama movie night
For a fun, fizzy night in, enjoy a classic girly night with prosecco, pizza and pampering in your PJs. Get your girls all together, pick your favourite romcom, weepie or standard girly movie, then enjoy pampering with facemasks and nail painting. You could have a slumber party in your cosiest pyjamas, a movie night dressed up as all your favourite iconic movie characters, or even a cocktail evening in your old prom dresses! If you’re planning a girly pamper night, check out our guide to having a spa day at home for everything you need to know.
Here are some of our top picks for a girl’s movie night:
- 10 Things I Hate About You
- Mamma Mia!
- Clueless
- Booksmart
- Easy A
- Mean Girls
- 27 Dresses
- Dirty Dancing
- Pitch Perfect
- Sleepless in Seattle
- Coyote Ugly
Our favourite Galentine’s Day cards
Maybe your best friend is having a tough time, or your mate is struggling with a breakup – or maybe you just want to tell a lady in your life how much you appreciate her. No matter the reason, at thortful you can find a Galentine’s card that’s perfect for your best girl. Here are a few of our favourites…
Cards from Lorna Davey, MBDESIGNS, Abbie Imagine, Highland and Honey, Sammie Illustrates, Nicki Creates
Galentine’s Day gift ideas
Galentine’s gifts don’t have to be pricey or expensive; unless you want to splash out on your friends, in which case, don’t let us stop you! Here are some of our fave ideas for Galentine’s Day gift ideas that your best girls are sure to love.
A bottle of sparkling wine
Everyone loves a bottle of something bubbly – couple your adorable Galentine’s card with a bottle of Nyetimber’s finest sparkling wine, get your best mates together and try your hand at some champagne cocktails. Yum!
An old-school friendship bracelet
At thortful, we’re proud to support small businesses – and you can too this Galentine’s, with a delightfully old-school charm bracelet and card from Aura Crystal Co.! Hand crafted in their Birmingham studio, just pick your perfect Galentine’s card and your bestie will receive an adorable, ethically sourced crystal bracelet nestled inside a letterbox friendly card.
A scented candle
Perfect for accompanying that chill spa-night-slash-sleepover, a candle gift from Aery makes a perfect present to give to your best gals. The Positive Energy candle with zingy pink grapefruit, vetiver and mint is bound to get her feeling revitalised if she’s so over the Valentine’s Day thing.
The possibilities to show your love are endless. If you’re struggling with Galentine’s Day gift ideas, we have plenty for you to choose from with our thortful gifts. With candles, drinks, and pamper packs on offer, you’ll be spoilt for choice on what to get them.
We could all use a few more reasons to celebrate – even if this celebration is new to you and your best girl friends, why not make it a new tradition? Whether you use our Galentine’s Day ideas or come up with your own, take the opportunity to tell the ladies in your life just how much you love and appreciate them. Shop our range of hundreds of Galentine’s Day cards, and check out the thortful blog for more lifestyle ideas and gift guides.
Header image source: Pexels
