How to host a Valentine Mystery Dinner

I have to thank Gourmet Mom on-the-go for our family’s FAVORITE Valentine’s Day tradition. It’s a Valentine Mystery Dinner and kids LOVE it! It’s a silly, mixed up dinner that has your family and friends guessing what they will get the whole time. Super fun and we even have printable mystery dinner menus for you (see the bottom of the post).

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For years I’ve struggled to find a fun Valentine’s Day tradition for our family that wasn’t too mushy for Little Son or too expensive and time-consuming. This idea is perfect. It’s fun for ALL of US.

We decorated the table with whatever we could find around the house and at our local store. I covered the kitchen opening with a curtain, so the kids would be surprised when they came in.

Here is a picture of our very first mystery dinner about 5 years ago! Simple, but festive. See how we covered the kitchen area with curtain so they couldn’t see our food prep.

Sometimes we send them an anonymous (but obvious) invite. We left it at the door so they didn’t know who it was from. While they were at a friend’s house, we made dinner and decorated. Then my husband and I dressed up as well as “The Chef” and “The Server”. We used accents and everything. The kidlets were laughing their heads off. (sorry no pics of that!).

My Man and I sometimes wear silly glasses or disguises as we serve them. So silly.

Here’s what the menu looks like. The kidlets have to pick what they want for each course, but they don’t know exactly what they are choosing because it’s all mixed up with crazy names.

We used these printable menus to make it easier. You assign each food a code name. You can even have the spoons and forks with special code name, so they get mixed up too. Use the menu guide that comes with the free printables to keep track of the codes names you assigned each food.

We’ve done it more than one year, so we switch up the menu so the kids cannot guess what we are having. Last year was tacos. One year we had hamburgers.

They end up with spaghetti and no fork, or a drink and a napkin, and lots of giggles. It’s hilarious and a good memory. CLICK ON THE LINK BELOW TO SEE HOW WE USE THESE MENUS: