Galentine's Day: what it is, and ideas for every kind of friend group

Galentine's Day is a day for celebrating the women friends in your life. It falls on February 13 every year, the day before Valentine's Day, and it's for single women and for women with partners. There are no rules about how to mark it. A long brunch, a night in, a walk or a card in the mail all count, as long as the point is the friendship.

An example: Carmen sends the message in late January: "Galentine's brunch, February 13, my place or the waffle café, vote now." The replies come in slowly. Joy asks whether it's weird to come when she has a boyfriend. Wren lives three hours away and says she'll try. Tamsin, who has hated fuss since the day the four of them met in a college dorm, replies with a single thumbs up, which everyone takes as a yes. They end up at the café, around a table too small for four plates of waffles. Carmen has written each of them a card. Halfway through reading hers aloud, Joy is crying from laughing, and the people at the next table ask what the occasion is.

What is Galentine's Day?

The name blends "gal" and "Valentine." Valentine's Day is usually about romance. Galentine's Day turns the same attention toward friends: the woman who answers your call at midnight, the one who remembers your sister's name, the one you've known so long that you finish each other's stories. Plenty of women call that friend their bestie, and Galentine's Day is a good excuse to tell her what she means to you.

For many women it has become a small yearly tradition. A group books the same café, swaps cards or spends an evening making something together. Some friends treat it as their own version of a friendiversary, a fixed date to stop and say that the friendship matters. For the card swap, a few silly lines just for friends are in funny Valentine's messages.

When is Galentine's Day?

Galentine's Day is on February 13. The date stays the same every year, so the only thing that moves is the day of the week it lands on.

Plenty of groups don't hold to the exact date. If February 13 falls on a Tuesday, a brunch on the Saturday before works just as well. It matters more to get a date into the group chat early, because February fills up fast for anyone with a partner, a family or a busy job. Groups who'd like a summer version too can meet on National Girlfriend Day, August 1.

Where did Galentine's Day come from?

The name comes from a 2010 episode of the TV comedy Parks and Recreation, in which the main character holds a breakfast for her women friends the day before Valentine's Day. Viewers liked the idea and started doing it themselves. By 2017, big shops such as Target were selling Galentine's Day products.

Is Galentine's Day only for single women?

No. It started as a celebration of friendship, and a partner has nothing to do with it. Women with husbands, wives, boyfriends and girlfriends celebrate it, and so do women who are single and happy about it.

Some groups invite everyone, men included, and call it a friends' day. Others keep it to the women in the group. Both are fine. Ask what your friends want instead of guessing.

Single friends who want a plan for the 14th as well can find one in Valentine's Day when you're single.

Ideas for friends who go way back

Old friends already have the best material, which is years of shared history.

• Recreate an old photo. Find a picture from college or your twenties, copy the pose, and put the two side by side.
• Go back to an old haunt. The diner near your first apartment, the beach you drove to every summer, the café where one of you worked.
• Hold a memory brunch. Each friend brings one story the others have forgotten.
• Make a time capsule. Everyone writes a letter to the group, to be opened at the same table in ten years.
• Swap something meaningful. A book that changed your mind, a recipe from your grandmother, a scarf you never wear but love.

Ideas for a newer circle of friends

When friends are still getting to know each other, a plan with something to do takes the pressure off the talk.

• Take a class together. Pottery, bread baking, flower arranging or a beginner dance class.
• Cook one dish each. Everyone brings a dish from her family or her hometown and tells the story behind it.
• Play a game that gets people talking. Two truths and a lie, or a round of questions where everyone answers the same thing.
• Go somewhere none of you has been. A new market, a museum night or a botanical garden.
• Ask about the last year. Have everyone name one good thing that happened to her since last February.

Galentine's Day ideas when friends live far apart

Living in different cities doesn't cancel the day. It just takes a different shape.

• Mail a box. Each friend sends one small thing to one other friend, picked by drawing names in January.
• Do a video brunch. Everyone makes the same breakfast at the same time and eats together on a call.
• Watch something at the same time. Pick a film you all loved at twenty and press play together.
• Plan a weekend for later in the year. Use February 13 to book it, then actually go.
• Send a voice message. Two minutes on why you love a friend will mean more to her than a text.

Ideas for friends with packed calendars

Some groups can barely find one evening a season. Keep it small and easy to say yes to.

• Do a walk and coffee. One hour, early on a weekend, before the rest of the day starts.
• Have a lunch-break Galentine's. Meet halfway for a quick lunch and swap cards.
• Cook a slow-cooker supper. One host, one pot, and friends drop in when they can.
• Send a card by post. It takes ten minutes to write and it stays on a friend's fridge for a year.

Hosting a Galentine's party

A Galentine's party can be four friends on a sofa or twelve around a table. A few things make it easy to host:

1. Pick one simple food idea. A waffle or pancake bar, a soup night, a big salad table or a dessert spread with fruit and chocolate.
2. Put out drinks everyone enjoys. Tea, coffee, hot chocolate, sparkling water with lemon or a pitcher of fresh juice.
3. Ask guests to bring one thing. A dessert, flowers, a card for the friend whose name they drew, or a game.
4. Add one shared activity. Making cards, writing notes to each other or decorating cookies keeps the room together.
5. Send everyone home with something. A tulip from the table, a cookie in a paper bag, or the card a friend wrote.

If the evening turns into a classic night in with games and blankets, there are more ideas for that in girls' night ideas.

Galentine's party games

A game or two gives the party a center without turning it into a contest. All of these use paper, pens and things already in the flat.

• Mouth the line. You need a bowl of paper slips. Write sweet or silly card lines on the slips, like "You're my favorite person to be bored with." One friend draws a slip and mouths the line with no sound, and whoever reads her lips first takes the next slip. About 15 minutes.
• The cheesiest card. You need paper folded into cards and pens. Each friend writes the cheesiest card she can for the friend on her left, and rhymes are welcome. The cards are read aloud, the room votes, and every card goes home with the friend it was written for. About 20 minutes.
• Three kind words. You need pens and a bowl of blank slips. Everyone draws a name and writes three kind words about that friend without naming her. The host reads each set aloud while the room guesses who it describes. About 15 minutes.
• Hearts behind your back. You need paper and a few pairs of scissors. Each friend cuts out a heart with her hands behind her back, and the hearts go on the table side by side. The group votes for the best and the worst, and the worst one goes on the fridge. About 10 minutes.
• The folded friend. You need paper and pens. Each friend draws a head at the top of a sheet, folds it over so only the neck shows and passes it on, and the next two players add a body and then legs. Unfold them all at once and give each new friend a name. About 15 minutes.

If partners and single friends join in on the 14th, Valentine's Day games for adults has games that mix the whole room.

Celebrating a friend who is nothing like you

Many friend groups have at least one pair who could hardly be more different. One friend wants a big brunch with toasts. The other would rather have a quiet walk and an honest talk. A surprise party is a gift to the first and an ordeal for the second.

The best Galentine's plan fits the friend in front of you. Typeza sees personality type as part of what someone enjoys. Six of the 16 types show the range:

• Harmonizer: loves a cozy room, good food and flowers on the table. A homemade brunch means more to her than a fancy restaurant.
• Mentor: wants the feelings said out loud. A heartfelt toast or a letter read at the table will stay with her for years.
• Commander: likes a plan with some energy, such as a hike, a climbing gym or a new place she gets to pick.
• Dreamer: prefers a calm afternoon with one or two friends, at her own pace. A loud, rushed party wears her out.
• Counselor: loves easy, quiet time with a friend she trusts. A slow lunch where you ask how she really is beats any party.
• Craftsman: enjoys doing something real with her hands, like pottery, cooking or building a planter, with no speeches.

If you aren't sure what your friend would like, ask her.

See what has kept your friend group together

Friends who are nothing alike can stay close for fifteen years, and personality type can help explain how. The friendship compatibility test is free and starts with your own type. Post the link from your result in the Galentine's group chat. Each friend who finishes gets a relationship type with you, showing the parts of your friendship that come naturally and the parts that need some work.

Questions people ask

Is Galentine's Day on the 13th or 14th?

Galentine's Day is on February 13. Valentine's Day is February 14, so the two don't clash.

What should I bring to a Galentine's party?

Bring what the host asks for. If she leaves it open, bring a dessert, flowers, a card for a friend or a game the group can play.

What is Palentine's Day?

Palentine's Day is Galentine's Day opened to friends of any gender, with "pal" in place of "gal." Many groups hold it on February 13, and some pick the 14th or the nearest weekend.

Sources

• Wikipedia, "Galentine's Day" (2010 Parks and Recreation episode). The episode first aired on February 11, 2010, and set Galentine's Day on February 13. By 2017, shops such as Target sold products for it.

Written by Virko Kask, founder of Typeza
Written with the help of AI tools.