Valentines Day isn’t just for adults, it’s for everyone. We all like to show how much we care and Valentines Day is the perfect excuse. Sometimes it can be difficult to come up with ideas for the kids without it costing a fortune – here are a few to get you started
Children love to celebrate Valentine’s Day with all their friends, it’s the day of the year that they can show their friends just how much they mean to them. One of the best and easiest things to do is make Valentine’s cards to hand out at school. There is no need to spend lots of money as it’s fun to make the cards and you don’t need much in the way of craft materials to do it. If you children are quite small it might be a good idea to give them a helping hand by making a heart template for them to draw round and cut out. The hearts can be cut from red and pink construction paper. The front of the heart can decorated with stickers, glitter and even ribbon to make each homemade Valentine card special. A little note written on the back and signed finishes the card nicely.
Your kids can make special treat bags to go with the Valentine’s cards that they hand out. You can start by choosing either chocolate candies or conversation hearts to fill the treat bags. You can use pink and red color tulle from your local craft store that can be cut into squares to make the little treat bags. Lay the square of tulle on the table, in the center of the square, put a small pile of candy. Finish off the treat bags by pulling up the sides and tying them together with ribbon – simple and pretty. Grandparents would love these too.
Your children will need a way to carry their homemade Valentine’s Day cards and gifts to school to wherever they are visiting to give their gifts. A special Valentine’s Day tote bag will be the best thing to carry cards to school and bring all of their cards back home. You can make this from a stout paper grocery bag or a plastic bag providing you use the right glue. Attach ribbons to the top of the bag to make handles for the Valentine’s Day tote bag. Then the bag itself can be decorated with cut out hearts, markers, ribbons, glitter and stickers.
Many children like to give Valentine’s Day gifts to their teachers or special adults like Uncles and Aunts or Grandparents There are quite a few suitable gifts that your children can make for them. What about their own special candy stash? This usually works best with small chocolate candies but can be done with any type. Start with a clean dry jar with the label removed. Fill the jar with the candy that you have chosen to use. Cover the lid with a square piece of fabric in colors that remind you of Valentine’s Day. Tie the cloth onto the lid with a ribbon. Then take a sticky label and decorate it with hearts and a message for the special person you are giving it to.
One of my favorite gifts is a cookie bouquet. You can bake some heart shaped cookies using our Valentines Cookie Recipe here and just cut out heart shapes. Before you bake the cookies you will want to place a wooden skewer into them to make the stem for the heart flowers. Ice the cookies with red and pink icing and allow the icing to set. Put a piece of floral foam in the bottom of a container to set your flower cookies in. Arrange the heart cookie flowers to finish this gift and maybe tie a bit of ribbon around to make it look even prettier. You could just tie three or four together to make a little ‘posy’ as well.
For someone really special you could make a Valentine’s Day apron. Start out by getting a plain apron from a craft store or cooking store, make sure it will take paint before you buy it. Using fabric paint (pens are best) decorate the apron with Valentine’s Day words and pictures. This is great fun and the kids really enjoy this one.
If you decide to make homemade chocolates or candies you may not be able to take them into school depending on the rules but your family and friends will appreciate them or you can take them to a Valentine’s Day party at a friend’s house or a church gathering. Many stores offer kits that include the candy molds and instructions for melting the chocolate. You could even make chocolate ‘spoons’ for luscious hot chocolate drinks with heart shaped marshmallows to float on top as a bed time treat for Valentines Day.
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