It’s Time to Celebrate a Girls’ Night Out

How long has it been since you took time out of your busy schedule for a girls’ night out?

While National Girls’ Night Out is celebrated on September 22, but you don’t need a special day on the calendar to gather your girls for a fun night together.

In fact, there are many great reasons to make time for a night out with your girls from time to time.

Here’s the best part—a girls’ night can look like whatever you want it to.

While some people may associate it with heading out for drinks and dancing at a karaoke bar, it could also be staying in for popcorn and movies.

It’s up to you and your girls to choose what works for you!

So, let’s get into all the nitty-gritty details of why you should have a girls’ night out and different ideas on how to spend your time.

Benefits of a girls’ night out

Let’s be honest—life is better with friends.

As Muhammad Ali once said, “Friendship is the hardest thing in the world to explain. It’s not something you learn in school. But if you haven’t learned the meaning of friendship, you really haven’t learned anything.”

Friends are good for our mental health

We live in a day and age when the self-care message is being pushed everywhere you look, yet we still have people struggling with anxiety and depression at record rates.

Why?

I believe part of the problem is that we are caught up in knowing a lot but not taking much action.

We know from these self-care messages that time with our friend group and family is important, yet we don’t make time to connect on a personal level with others.

Instead, we work on gathering followers and friends on social media, and we forego going through the process of getting to know friends on a deep level while letting ourselves be known by them.

I spent five years working as a writer in the mental health industry, pushing out the message of the importance of self-care.

I can attest to the fact that research supports forming friendships and connections with others outside of what social media is designed to do.

We need actual face-to-face connections with friends who understand us, allow us to be ourselves, laugh with us, cry with us, and someone we can rely on to be there when it feels like the bottom dropped out on life.

Friendships are crucial to our health and wellness, not to mention that girl friends are super fun.

A Girls’ night out creates time to bond

An evening together gives you more time to connect and foster your friendship than short conversations in passing.

Almost everyone you talk to these days mentions how busy they are every day.

Our packed schedules don’t allow for quality time with our friends, which is why a night out together is perfect.

It allows you to break away from your regular schedule and all the demands of your day so you can give your undivided attention to having fun with friends.

You can make time to have deep conversations, share what’s been going on in life, and create new, fun memories to reminisce about for years to come.

What to do on your girls’ night out

Whether you are just getting together or celebrating at a bachelorette party, having a girls’ night out should be a chance to have fun with your best friends.

When planning your girls’ night out activities, the options are limitless.

You can choose the activities that sound the most fun for you, which may differ from one time to the next.

Having trouble coming up with an idea that will be a hit?

Here are a few suggestions to get your wheels turning.

Throw Back to the Childhood Sleepover Days

This is a great idea if you are on a budget!

All you really need to do is figure out who should host it.

Throw on your pajamas, pop the popcorn, and watch a scary movie just like you used to during sleepovers.

Or, make your favorite snacks, grab a handful of fashion magazines, paint nails, put on a facial mask, and talk for the night.

Now, you are old enough to enjoy a bottle of wine if you want!

I probably wouldn’t suggest including prank calls like you did when you were a kid since everyone now has caller ID on their phones.

Besides, you can just stream all the perfect music now instead of waiting for it to come on the radio.

Have a Game Night

Game nights were a favorite girls’ night out activity with my gals for years!

Once again, make your favorite snacks and gather for a night of fun.

If you really wanted to, you could do some cooking beforehand and enjoy dinner together.

However, if you are all moms and are tired of cooking, that is understandable.

You can play old board games from childhood, card games, or new strategy games like the murder mystery games.

Make it a trivia night if you are feeling competitive.

It will be a night of competition, conversation, fun, and laughter.

Get Artsy

Whether you guys are artists or can barely finger paint, there are ways for you to appreciate or create art for a girls’ night out.

For example, you can attend a local Paint and Pour where you drink wine while following along with a teacher to paint your own picture to take home.

You could head to a make-your-own pottery store where you can choose pieces of pottery to paint.

This allows you to get a second girls’ night out of it when you have to go back and pick up your pottery after it’s had time to go in the kiln and cool a week or two later.

Or, if you’re not into making art, you can head to a gallery and browse the works of local artists.

Maybe even check out one of the many museums near you.

Take a Class Together

Look around your local area to see what classes are being offered.

You may find a dance class, an online cooking class, a book club, an exercise class, or all kinds of other classes that you can take together.

Some of these may be one-time classes that are perfect for a girls’ night out, or you can all join a longer class together and enjoy time with friends week after week doing an activity you all enjoy.

Be a Tourist in Your Town

We often overlook the activities and destinations that someone new to our area would want to check out. 

Look at your area to see what you would do if you were visiting for the first time.

Then, get your group together and be a tourist.

Go on a tour, take your pictures in front of the murals, eat at the local restaurants instead of the chain ones, and buy a souvenir to remember the night.

Turn Girls’ Night Out Into a Weekend

I graduated over 20 years ago from high school.

My three best friends from high school are still some of my closest girlfriends.

They know me: the good, the bad, and the ugly.

We’ve been through many parts of life together, like college, marriage, and kids.

So, even though I now live two states away from them, those relationships are hard to replace.

We’ve been planning a weekend trip where we meet in the middle, rent an Airbnb, play games, and catch up on life while taking a break from the daily responsibilities of being wives and mothers.

I am sure there will be good food and a bottle of wine or two!

It’s like a girls’ night out on steroids!

Invite new people

If you have a small group, have your besties invite someone new to whichever activity you choose.

This is a girls’ night out with bonus points!

You might just hit it off with one of their buddies and have new gals to invite for girls’ night out.

Choose your own adventure!

Did a fun girls’ night activity come to your mind?

Are you still stuck?

Here are a bunch more ideas:

• Attend a local sporting event
• Visit a museum
• Go to dinner and try a new type of food
• Have drinks and go dancing
• Try to get out of an escape room
• Tour a historical site
• Sing karaoke
• Treat yourselves to a spa day
• Go hiking
• Hit the beach
• Walk downtown and shop

Girls’ night out outfit ideas

What you wear is going to depend on what you choose to do.

If you are having a sleepover or game night, themed and matching pajamas might be fun!

Your friends will love not having to feel the pressure of picking the perfect outfit.

If you go out to dinner, a comedy show, or even a movie, you might want to wear something a little dressier.

A nice pair of jeans or slacks with a fashionable top and some jewelry should do the trick.

Check out this page for some inspiration pictures!

Don’t want to get dressed up?

Then don’t.

This is your story, so really, just wear what you want.

Girls’ night out is the perfect time to get together with your best friends

The activity you do doesn’t matter; the time you spend with your girls is important.

There doesn’t need to be food and drinks even.

Spending time to visit with your tribe outside the bustle of our lives is essential.

Whether you haven’t seen each other in person since college, or if you live within minutes of each other, getting to sit and visit will do you good.

So, text your group, get a date on the calendar, and choose a fun activity.

Then, take it a step further and make it a recurring event. 

Plan a quarterly, monthly, or weekly girls’ night out to keep those friendships strong. 

“Friendship improves happiness, and abates misery, by doubling our joys, and dividing our grief.” — Marcus Tullius Cicero

Tell us which girls’ night out idea excited you the most, or share a new idea with us in the comment section below.

Be sure and click the share button before you go!