Along with all the other holidays this year, this Valentine’s Day is going to be different. For a holiday all about being close to your loved ones – in a time when it’s dangerous to be close to people – how are people planning to spend it?

DePaul students are all gearing to celebrate it differently.  Courtney Cobbs said that she is going to be delivering a gift to the person she is dating via bike. Alistair Merczak and their partner are getting tested for Covid-19, and – depending on the results – will either spend the day together watching movies or have a Zoom date. 

Timo Duke said they rented out a movie theater to watch “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” with their girlfriend. Alexandra Acain said that she plans to spend it celebrating her first Galentine’s Day with her friends from Cru DePaul. 

“Don’t forget to celebrate the love of your friends and family, too, by making the most of your Galentine’s Day, a nice meal with other friends and family, anything to celebrate that Sunday,” she said.

Movies, TV and social media sometimes make it seem like Valentine’s Day needs to be a huge elaborate celebration, but that doesn’t need to be the case at all. Valentine’s is a day to celebrate love, whether that’s your partner, your friends or yourself. It doesn’t matter how you spend the day as long as you are having fun, but if you are still looking for ideas, here are a few you can do safely.

For those who are fans of movies, you have a ton of options. If you have a car and don’t want to stay in, there are tickets still available to see a drive-in movie at ChiTown Movies in Pilsen. At the time of publication, there are still various tickets available to see “Lady and the Tramp” and “La La Land.” If you can’t be with the person you want to celebrate with, there are apps like Scener or Netflix Party that sync up streaming so that multiple people can watch at the same time. 

Good food is a Valentine’s staple, along with cheesy movies, so you can try cooking a nice meal with one of these Valentine’s themed recipes. Another option is ordering takeout. Chicago Food Magazine put together a list of local Chicago restaurants that are offering Valentine’s takeout specials, ranging from fast food to cafes to steakhouses. 

Or, if you absolutely hate the idea of Valentine’s Day and just want to get it over with, here is a Spotify playlist of anti-Valentine’s songs to get you through the day. You could also binge some of the movies from this IMDB list of movies with no romantic plots or subplots whatsoever.

Acain said the best advice she can offer to people that are stumped on how to spend the day is to “keep things simple this year and give yourself some self-love, rest, and self-care in any form — whether it’s in the form of binging your favorite TV series, baking, making your favorite drink, or an at-home spa day.”