Ways to Celebrate Valentine's Day With Your Family

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By: Michele Trotter.

Valentine’s Day can bring out some strong emotions – most people love it or hate it. I, traditionally, have been one who does not like Valentine’s Day because it has become all about spending money on the most expensive jewelry, at the most expensive restaurants, and so on. When my husband and I got married, we decided that our tradition would be to cook a fabulous dinner at home and exchange a card or small (I mean small) gift. Since my daughter is three this year, we want to bring her in on the fun. At our house, we are cooking one of our favorite meals for dinner, with the main course being CHEESE SOUFFLE, one of my very favorite things to eat! We’ll also have baked asparagus and sauteed shrimp. We’re having chocolate covered strawberries and strawberry cupcakes for dessert. My daughter is going to help me make dessert.

How to Celebrate Together:

Are you looking for some fun ideas for celebrating Valentine’s Day with your family… without breaking the bank? Here are some tried and true ideas, tested by real moms (and dads):

• Cook a special dinner that everyone will like (or at least one favorite of each person if you can’t all agree!). For dessert, get everyone in on the action by having chocolate fondue. Have pieces of fruit such as banana, apple and strawberry for everyone to dip into the chocolate. Or, for a sweeter ending, use pieces of marshmallow or angel food cake. Kids will have so much fun dipping their food into the chocolate – warning, this could get messy.

• Donate. Instead of giving each other gifts, donate something to a family, group, or charity who can use your old things.

• Write a Special Valentine. Have each person in your family write a personal Valentine to each member of the family about why they love having that person in the family, or what makes that person special.

• Make Valentine’s day cards for friends and family. This fun craft idea is fun to create and to give. Pull out the doilies, red/pink construction paper, crayons, markers, feathers, paint, pom poms — whatever you have around the house to make some fabulous Valentine’s. Another wonderful idea is to cut a sponge into shapes and dip them in paint to make artistic Valentine’s. For example, cut a sponge into the shape of a heart, dip in red paint and press onto white paper.

• Make it a movie night. Rent a special movie and snuggle in with your family (it may be cold this weekend).

• Theme the entire day. Eat red and/or pink food with your meals all day. Think strawberries, strawberry milk, apples, tomatoes, watermelon, cherries, juice, jell-o. Use food coloring to make pink eggs for breakfast.

• Cut it out. Use a cookie cutter to cut food into fun shapes — cut sandwiches into heart shapes.

• Verbalize your feelings. Tell each other you love each other, and why.

• Turn off the TV, and make time to be together as a family. Eat dinner together. Go to the park. Spend time reading books together. Play together.

• Give each other small, meaningful gifts. Have young children draw pictures – maybe frame them, frame a favorite photograph.

• Make a yummy family desert. Make chocolate covered strawberries or strawberry cupcakes for dessert. Let your kids help you.

Whatever you do for Valentine’s Day, make it special and meaningful to you and your family. The ideas above should give you lots of room for variation and/or personalization for your family.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Michele is the owner of IzzyBelle’s Children’s Boutique and also writes for IzzyBelle’s Trendy Tots Blog.