How To Celebrate The Joy That Is Galentine’s Day 2016
Everyone knows that Valentine’s Day is a fake holiday designed to make couples spend money on heart-shaped rubbish and single people feel like cr*p.
This year, whether you’re married or single, going steady or going stag, forget V-Day and instead celebrate what is easily the greatest made-up national holiday - Galentine’s Day.
Fans of Parks and Recreation will already be familiar with this most sacred of days - an occasion to celebrate the wonderful women in your life. Leslie Knope - all-round superstar of Parks and Rec - introduced the world to G-Day in 2010 and described it thusly:
“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.”
Pretty great, right?
Yes, it might be fictional but it sounds a damn sight better than spending way too much money on cliched flowers and pretending to like that heart-shaped plushie your boyfriend got you at the last minute.
This February 13, get together with your best friends, your sisters, your mum or your work besties and celebrate Galentine’s Day in style.
Waffles And Bubbly
Brunch is the perfect way to celebrate with your best girlfriends. While there’s room for avocado and poached eggs aplenty, everyone knows that a real, authentic G-Day isn’t complete without Leslie’s favourite food - waffles.
Do yourself a favour and invest in your own waffle maker - you can pick up one for less than £30. Then the only thing standing between you and a lifetime of waffle happiness is your own imagination.
Then why not try out these tasty recipes to make your own Belgian brunch-fest:
The perfect sweet waffles. [Photo: Picky Palate]
Spinach and cheese waffles. [Photo: Once Upon a Recipe]
Gluten free waffles. [Photo: Cookie and Kate]
Failing that, you can pick up sweet waffles in all major supermarkets and go crazy on the toppings.Or you could just keep it simple like Leslie and stick with classic whipped cream, we won’t judge you.
Of course, you need to wash down those sweet treats with something special on this hallowed day and we will literally use any excuse to drink bubbly. This prosecco punch is a firm favourite at parties and is the perfect excuse to dust down that 70s punch bowl you bought in a charity shop last year. (No? Just us?)
Prosecco punch. [Photo: Table for Two]
Gifts
Unlike its romantic counterpart, Galentine’s Day isn’t about material gifts and splashing the cash. If you really want to embody the true spirit of the day, get crafty and create some homemade gifts like scrapbooks stuffed with memories.
For the rest of us who barely have time to watch the episodes of Parks and Rec we’ve recorded on Sky+, here are some G-Day gifts Leslie would be proud of. Perfect for the beautiful tropical fish in your life.
Card. [Photo: Etsy]
Anne and Leslie mug. [Photo: Etsy]
Ovaries before brovaries. [Photo: Etsy]
Tropical fish print. [Photo: Etsy]
Now, go forth and celebrate you beautiful land mermaids.
Words by Sophie Tighe
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