Social activity without items

How about tell stories?

True that’s another one I forgot :)

There's not enough of them IMO. Past versions had a lot more. They don't even face each other when they dance together! There's a few interactions that need fixing and I'd like to see them add a few more things for kids to do together like the pillow fights and tag.

kids can play pretend with each other and adults can play with toddlers without items.

There's also Stargaze, of course. I can't think of many others but there are Vampiric Spar, Practice Fighting, Magic Duel, Practice Acting, and Perform Scene. Depends a lot on your DLC and your Sim's skills, career, and occult status.

I used to love the pillow fights. And tag was another favourite. I really wish they'd bring back stuff like that.

And, for goodness sake, close romantic slow dancing is long overdue.

Does fishing count? You don't have to buy an item. It's free to fish and they added "fish together".
Relationship is built while fishing along with skill and your Sim makes some money. If you pair it with the fishing aspiration you also get points. Fishing is a very valuable part of the game. It gives both life and death. Use angelfish for ambrosia and puffer fish to make a deadly dish. The fishing sign is an object in the world and takes no lot space.

Fishing counts I guess as you don’t technically need any item you could buy.

Swimming has several... swim together, splash each other, teach to swim (for an adult/child together)
There;s several others between adults/kids such as teach about manners, teach flashcards (tots), play, etc.

Also snowball fights and building snowpals, building sandcastles etc. )


There's also several you can do that DO require items but the items are available free around the different lots, so not sure how you'd count those (playing horseshoes/campfires, even group projects are given out for free every Monday)

They're adding more in recent packs but I still miss the ones from Sims 2 like tag, cops and robbers, hacky sack, playing catch...