Valentines Day can be a really special day for the family if you put a little planning into it – it doesn’t take much effort as everyone can join in. When Valentines Day falls at the weekend you can have a lot of fun just by spending the day together doing something different. How about a trip to the local park if the weather is up to it, you could even take a picnic or if it’s cold a big flask of rich hot chocolate and a few marshmallows to float on it as an extra special treat. There are some lovely little heart shaped ones around. Most parks have some nature walks or play areas, even if you are grown up try pretending to be a kid for a little while. You might be surprised at how much fun that can be.
How about each member of the family choosing something they have never done before and you all try it out. It might be something as simple as planting seeds, or baking a cake, or it could be something wildly different like white water rafting – though you would need to do a little advance planning for that one!
It’s nice to start Valentines Day off with a surprise for each of the family. Try making a Valentines Day Surprise Box for everyone. You can make the boxes by covering cereal or similar boxes with pink or red paper and decorating them. Put each person’s name on their box and put them out the night before. You can put a small gift and a card in each one ready for the morning and then drop in little treats through the day. Perhaps start with a flower, or something with a heart on it. Other family members can also drop gifts in as surprises so you never quite know who put what where – a special chocolate, a pretty pen, a pair of socks with hearts on, a little notebook. Nothing has to be very extravagant and you can spend some time before with the children making the gifts.
Something we like to do is have a special Valentines Day breakfast, especially if there is no school or work. We have all our favorite breakfast foods, mine is pancakes with maple syrup. We make them in a heart shape for Valentines and add a few Strawberries as well. If you can’t make heart shaped pancakes you can always draw a heart with the syrup. We also make heart shaped French toast using a cookie cutter. If you like eggs for breakfast you can cut a heart shape out of a piece of bread and pop that in the pan and break the egg into the space. Whatever your family likes, there is a way you can make it special.
You can continue the theme by putting little notes in the packed lunches, and add a few Valentines Day Cookies. What about a napkin decorated with hearts, or even just a ribbon round the lunch box. It only takes a little imagination and you can come up with something. You can buy little heart shaped pots and you could make a dessert to go in one of those, something like a jelly or what about a heart shaped cake.
If it’s a work day the chances are that the only meal you will have together as a family is Dinner, so make that special. You can let everyone choose part of the meal so you each have a favorite item, and it’s almost compulsory o Valentines Day to have something that involves chocolate. You can lay the table with all the things you like to keep for special occasions, light some candles and create a lovely atmosphere. We all dress up for Valentines Day Dinner just as if we were going out to a smart Restaurant. You can always leave the washing up just this once and spend a pleasant evening together, perhaps playing some Valentines Day games or just chatting about your day and the people that have made it special.
