7 genius mom-daughter date ideas to try before the year ends

A traditional "yes day" can get expensive and chaotic quickly, so give the idea a practical twist.

Set a budget, perhaps $30 or $50, and take turns deciding how to spend it. Your daughter might choose pancakes for lunch, a trip to the bookstore, matching nail polish, or an absurdly large dessert. Mom gets a few picks, too.

The spending limit is what makes this mom-daughter date surprisingly fun. Instead of simply buying whatever you want, you have to get creative about building the best day possible within your budget.

For younger kids, give them two or three choices at each stop. With teenagers, hand over more of the planning.

The only important rule? Regular responsibilities and safety rules still apply. "Yes day" does not mean "anything goes."

If you and your daughter love fashion, this could easily become your new tradition.

Head to a local thrift store and set the same small budget for each person. Then choose a challenge. You could style each other, find an outfit inspired by a favorite decade, hunt for the most fabulous holiday look, or see who can create the best outfit for under $20.

Try everything on and take pictures of your favorites. You don't even have to purchase the clothes for the experience to be entertaining.

For an extra challenge, pick one item for each other that you would normally never wear. Sometimes Mom needs the sparkly jacket. Sometimes her daughter needs to discover that vintage cardigan is actually cute.

This is one of the easiest last-minute mom-daughter date ideas because you barely need a plan.

Pack drinks and snacks, make a playlist, get in the car, and choose a safe area to explore. At predetermined intersections, flip a coin. Heads means turn right, tails means turn left.

Give yourselves a time limit so you don't end up two hours from home wondering how a bonding activity became a road trip.

When you find an interesting café, park, bookstore, bakery, scenic spot, or neighborhood, stop and explore.

For safety, the driver should always make the final decision about the route, and navigation should stay on so you can easily get home.

No car? Create the same challenge on foot in a walkable area by taking turns choosing which street to explore next.

Why choose one treat when you can turn several tiny treats into an entire afternoon?

Choose three local cafés, bakeries, dessert shops, or coffee spots you've never visited. Order one thing to share at each place and rate your picks.

Maybe stop one has the best hot chocolate, stop two wins for pastries, and stop three has the coziest atmosphere.

This idea is especially good for moms and teenage or adult daughters because there is plenty of built-in time to talk without the pressure of sitting across from each other for one long meal.

Make it seasonal toward the end of the year by searching for pumpkin treats in fall, holiday drinks in December, or the best hot chocolate in your town.

You might accidentally discover your new favorite place.

You probably have hundreds of pictures of your daughter and far fewer great pictures together.

Fix that before the year ends.

Choose a location you both love, put on outfits that make you feel good, and turn an ordinary afternoon into a DIY photo date. Visit a pretty neighborhood, botanical garden, mural, downtown area, beach, park, or another visually interesting spot.

Take turns being the photographer instead of expecting Mom to remain behind the camera.

You can even make a short shot list before leaving that includes one laughing photo, one full-length picture, one silly shot, one close-up, and at least one picture together using a timer or tripod.

At the end of the year, print your favorite photo at your local Walgreens or CVS instead of letting it disappear into the camera roll. If you have a printer with a rear tray, you can also buy 4x6 or 5x7 photo paper on Amazon, and print your glossy photos at home.

This mom-daughter date doubles as a family history lesson without feeling like homework.

Choose something Mom loved at her daughter's age and recreate it.

Go roller skating. Visit an old-school diner. Watch the movie Mom couldn't stop watching as a teenager. Make the snack she used to eat after school. Play songs from her middle school years. Dig out old photographs and attempt to recreate one.

Then reverse the idea.

Let your daughter design a "day in my life" experience for Mom. Listen to her favorite playlist, try the snack she loves, watch an episode of her favorite show, learn one of her hobbies, or let her explain a trend Mom genuinely doesn't understand.

You may both leave knowing considerably more about each other.

Finish the year by looking forward instead of only looking back.

Grab dinner, hot chocolate, or snacks and bring notebooks. Each of you writes down a few things you want to remember about this year and a few hopes for the next one.

Add funny predictions, current favorites, little worries you hope won't matter a year from now, places you want to visit, songs you can't stop playing, and something you want to learn together.

You can also include a photo from your mom-daughter date, a receipt, movie ticket, handwritten note, or another tiny souvenir.

Seal everything in an envelope or box and write an opening date on it for the following year.

The fun part comes later, when you discover which predictions were wildly wrong and which tiny details you had completely forgotten.