14 Winter Proposal Ideas

Proposing to your partner during the wintertime can make the holiday season even more magical. At Necker’s Jewelers, we want your proposal to be as special as possible. To help with your winter proposal planning, we’ve compiled a list of our favorite proposal ideas to use during the most wonderful time of the year.

1. Add a Present Under the Christmas Tree

Whether you gift wrap her engagement ring yourself our have one of our sales associates wrap it for you, proposing on Christmas Eve or Christmas morning with a gorgeous diamond engagement ring is sure to be the best present she’ll receive this holiday season.

For a more inconspicuous gift, you could also hide it at the bottom of her stocking!

2. Attend a Christmas Light Show or Tree Lighting

One of the best parts of the holiday season is watching a Christmas light show or tree lighting. These events are often accompanied by Christmas music, adding even more festive cheer. While she’s looking at the beautiful lights, it would be the perfect moment for you to get down on one knee to ask her to marry you.

In the Quad City area, the Symphony of Lights in Clinton, IA is an outdoor light display that you can drive through. There are also some dates every year where you can walk through Eagle Point Park to enjoy the displays.

The Quad City Botanical Center in Rock Island, IL also hosts a Winter Lights event, featuring several indoor and outdoor winter lights displays. Another beautiful Quad Cities light display is located at Vander Veer Botanical Park in Davenport, IA.

3. Take Your Christmas Card Photos

It can be difficult to have someone secretly take photos during your engagement without your partner suspecting that you’re going to propose. But these photos are ones you’ll cherish for a lifetime. To solve this problem, you can take your partner to meet up with a photographer under the guise that you’re taking professional Christmas card photos. After taking a few photos, you can surprise her by asking her to marry you while the photographer is still snapping away!

4. Create a Homemade Advent Calendar

Advent calendars are a fun way to celebrate the holiday season. Typically, Advent calendars begin on December 1st and end on December 25th. There are several designs you can find online to make your own at home, ranging from small gifts in paper bags to elaborately wrapped presents. Whatever you decide to do, you can put small gifts like chocolate or makeup into the Advent calendar for her to open each day, leading up to December 25th when she receives her engagement ring!

5. Go Ice Skating

If your girlfriend is an ice skating-lover, why not incorporate one of her favorite activities into your proposal by popping the question while ice skating with her.

To ice skate around the Quad Cities, we recommend visiting the Frozen Landing Family Ice Rink, which is an outdoor skating rink in Bettendorf, IA. Please note that it’s possible the Frozen Landing Family Ice Rink will be closed during 2024 for construction, so check their website for details on when it will be open again. For an indoor ice skating rink, you can visit The River’s Edge in Davenport, IA.

6. Write “Will You Marry Me?” In the Snow

This idea can actually be combined with another idea on this list, like going to a Christmas tree farm or ice skating. When there’s enough snow on the ground, propose by writing “Will you marry me?” in the snow. Decorate the area using lanterns, poinsettias, or Christmas lights to construct the perfect scene. When you’re ready, take her to that spot or have her meet you there so you can propose to her.

7. Make a Custom Christmas Tree Ornament

Put your crafting skills to the test by making a homemade Christmas ornament that says, “Will You Marry Me?” and hang it up on the Christmas tree for her to see. You can put it up when you decorate the tree together or when it gets closer to Christmas. Be prepared to present the ring to her when she sees the decoration!

8. Go to a Christmas Tree Farm

If you and your partner prefer to decorate with live Christmas trees, take her to a Christmas tree farm to pick one out. Beforehand, however, ask if you can decorate a tree with a single ornament that says “Will you marry me?” or with other decorations and a sign. You could also print out photos of the two of you during significant moments in your relationship and turn those into Christmas tree ornaments. Then, decorate the perfect live Christmas tree with them. When you get to the tree farm, look around for a tree before stumbling across the one you decorated. When she sees it, ask her to marry you.

Across the Mississippi River in Fulton, IL is the Timber Lane Christmas Tree Farm. At this Christmas tree farm, you’ll find both pre-cut trees and trees you can cut down yourself. There are several other Christmas tree farms in the Quad Cities area including Wyffels Tree Farm in Moline, IL and Richland Grove Tree Farm in Lynn Center, IL. While they’re closed for 2024, if you’re planning a winter proposal in 2025 you’ll also want to check out Up North Pines in Davenport, IA.

9. Go Skiing or Snowboarding

If your girlfriend loves skiing or snowboarding, this outing would be the perfect setting for a winter proposal. Whether you propose on the slopes or in your hotel, this trip and your engagement are sure to be two things she’ll never forget.

For skiing and snowboarding in the Quad City area, we recommend checking out Snowstar in Andalusia, IL, which is about 30 minutes southwest of our Necker’s Jewelers Davenport location, and Chestnut Mountain in Galena, IL, which is around an hour and fifteen minutes north of our Necker’s Jewelers location in DeWitt, IA.

10. Decorate Christmas Cookies Together

Decorating Christmas cookies can be a fun way to get into the holiday spirit. If you propose this way, we recommend decorating, or buying, a cookie that says “Will you marry me?” beforehand and then showing it off among your other decorated Christmas cookies when you’re ready. When she sees it, you can propose! This proposal is especially fun because she can eat the cookie (or cookies) afterwards.

11. Propose Under the Mistletoe

For a Hallmark Christmas movie worthy winter proposal, we suggest incorporating mistletoe. While you and your fiancée-to-be are decorating for Christmas, you could hang up some mistletoe and propose to her under it.

12. Propose at Midnight on New Year’s

What better way to usher in the new year than with a proposal she’ll remember forever? One famous New Year’s tradition is counting down to midnight to celebrate the start of the new year. If you’re having a party for New Year’s, a great way to propose is to tell everyone beforehand when you plan to ask her to marry you, and then get down on one knee when the clock strikes midnight. We recommend that you don’t do this in an overly crowded public space, and that you make sure you warn everyone of what you’re doing beforehand, because otherwise it may be too loud at midnight for your partner to hear you propose, and for you to hear her answer.

13. Go on a Vacation for Christmas

Escape the ice-cold Quad Cities by taking your partner on the vacation of a lifetime for Christmas! Travel somewhere your significant other has always wanted to go. Then, make this trip even more memorable by proposing. We can’t think of a better vacation souvenir than a sparkling diamond engagement ring.

14. Propose on Valentine’s Day

Valentine’s Day is already a day to celebrate love and romance, so it makes sense that you’d want to make it even more special by proposing to your partner. Whether you take her out for a nice dinner, get her a box of chocolates with “Will you marry me?” inside, recreate your first date, or something else, this winter proposal is one she’ll remember every Valentine’s Day.

Finding the Perfect Engagement Ring for Your Winter Proposal

We guarantee that a Necker’s Jewelers engagement ring will make your winter days merry and bright. We have a huge selection of engagement rings in our stores in Davenport and DeWitt, IA, as well as on our website.