How to Have a Movie Date Night in Your Car

Getting out of the house with stay-at-home orders is tough, but not impossible. There are ways you can still date your spouse during this time. Just the other night, Austin and I had a movie night in our van. 

Here’s how you can have your own movie night. 

1. Setup a Way to Watch The Movie

We have a DVD player in our van, which made this part easy for us. The one thing I was worried about was whether or not it would kill our battery to play a 2-hour movie. Just in case, we parked the van in a way that we could get a jump if needed. Also, halfway through the movie, we cut the van on to let the battery recharge for a bit while we grabbed drink refills. 

However, you can use a computer, portable DVD player, phone, or some other device to play your movie. You’ll need to consider the battery life of your device and whether or not it can play an entire movie. Otherwise, you can run a drop cord from your house to plug it in. 

2. Consider The Weather

It’s already getting hot where we live, so we did a few things to keep cool during our movie. Before starting the movie, we ran the AC in the van for about 20 minutes to cool the temp down. Then, we plugged in a fan and ran it during the movie to keep the air going. About halfway through the movie, we took a break to get desert and ran the AC again. 

Just consider whether you will need a fan or blankets ahead of time. Otherwise, you’ll find yourself having to pause the movie to get the things you need to be comfortable. 

3. Choose The Movie

We like watching romantic comedies on date nights, so we chose something in that genre. Choose something you are both going to enjoy, which I know can be hard to do. Just pick something that is a safe bet for you both. 

Here’s where to find the movie we rented: This Mean War.

4. Create Environment

When we started the movie, it wasn’t too dark, but once the sun went down the van got pretty dark. I laid out battery operated lights in order to add a little light, like you would have in a movie theatre. It turned out really nice!

We created our own reclining setup in the van. To do that, we sat on the back bench in our van and laid the middle row down. Then I grabbed some footstools from the house and we propped our feet up. Fortunately, our bench seat reclines, which allowed us to lay back while we watched the movie. 

5. Concessions

Don’t forget the drinks and snacks! We took a concession break to refill our drinks and grab some ice cream. 

This was one of the coolest date nights for us during COVID-19. It was very inexpensive and didn’t take much to set up. Good luck on creating your own movie theater!

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