5 IDEAS FOR CELEBRATING VALENTINE’S DAY WITH YOUR FAMILY

It’s almost February 14—time for the annual celebration of love. Your family traditions may include anything from hosting a fancy tea to exchanging homemade cards: here are a few more ideas for making the day special.

1. Put Yourself Into Your Valentine’s Gifts

Love means giving more than things that can be bought with money. It means sharing personal time, attention, and creativity. Some examples:

Creating a handmade Valentine

Adding your own sentiments to the verse on a card

Baking your children’s favorite cookies

Skipping your regular Netflix hours to take the family to dinner

Putting special effort into finding and giving whatever gifts individual family members find meaningful—from special gourmet chocolates to an hour snuggling on your lap

2. Hold a “Why I Love You” Family Dinner

Many families have a Thanksgiving tradition of going around the dinner table to let each member share what he or she is thankful for. Why not do the same on Valentine’s Day, having everyone share one thing they like about having each family member as a parent, child, or sibling? If anyone has a criticizing or arguing habit, they need this all the more, but give a couple of days’ advance notice so no one will feel put on the spot by immediate difficulty thinking of something to say.

3. Share Sentimental Memories

Family love and traditions span generations. Help your children build emotional connections to their great-grandparents and other relatives they never got the chance to meet—as well as to your younger self.

Break out the wedding albums, baby pictures, and old pet photos.

Read excerpts from old diaries or love letters.

Make your grandmother or grandfather’s signature recipe you haven’t eaten in years.

Have a “from my childhood” costume party: your kids dress as you did at their age, and you dress as your parents did then. (Think the styles haven’t changed in thirty years? Take another look at those old photos!)

4. Have a “Signs of Love” Scavenger Hunt

Take a walk or drive through your neighborhood and see who can list the most sights that say “love” to them. Some possibilities:

Two cardinals feeding each other

Someone petting a dog

People holding hands

Heart shapes in tree limbs, rock gardens, or shadows

And, of course, “official” Valentine’s Day decorations.

5. Let Family Members Choose Their Own Valentines

Instead of buying all your cards and gifts in advance, why not make the shopping excursion part of your February 14 celebration? Have each family member contribute to a common pot for the day’s budget; pick a family-favorite store, mall, or farmer’s market; then head off on a group outing where everyone can select one additional gift for themselves. Culminate the day with a shared restaurant meal or movie/concert.

(You could adapt this idea to any number of themes: choosing one treat from a candy store, one magazine from a bookstore rack, one ride from an amusement park.)

A blessed Valentine’s Day to you all!