Valentine’s Day: Simple Ways To Spread the Love

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Valentine's Day Simple Ways Spread Love Providence Moms Blog

I hated Valentine’s Day for a long time. 

As a jaded teenager, I dreaded the day that reminded me I had no admirers. My school did a fund-raiser every year where for $1 you could send a carnation to anyone in school. So every Valentine’s Day the pretty popular girls walked around with dozens of carnations while I had one, sent from my best friend (thanks, Michelle).  It was so shallow and silly and probably inspired by an episode of Saved By The Bell, but every year I would get my hopes up, only to be disappointed. 

One year, instead of the one carnation, I found out I received two. I had no idea who it was from since the note was a math joke I didn’t understand. As I went about my morning, I noticed that almost everyone had at least one flower, and everyone seemed to be in a great mood. When I got to my fourth-period Geometry class, I sat down ready to endure 50 minutes of torture. To my surprise, my teacher opened the class with “Happy Valentine’s Day to all of my favorite students. I hope you all enjoy the flowers.”

My teacher had given every one of his students a flower-gram that year, and it completely changed the way I saw Valentine’s Day. It was incredible how such a small gesture made everyone’s day so much better.  I think this sweet and genuine simplicity should be the heart of our Valentine’s Day celebrations.

So in honor of Mr. Combs, I compiled a few ideas you can do, either with or without your kids, to make someone smile this Valentine’s Day – or any day, really.

  1. Buy a bunch of flowers, and give out singles to whoever you’d like. Get the kids on this, too. Hand them out in the park, in the store, library, anywhere! Attach a cute note if you want to get fancy, but really that would be reaching the limits of my craftiness. A simple flower and “Happy Valentine’s Day” is more than enough.
  2. Did you receive good customer service? Let the kids overhear you call the manager to compliment them. This sounds lame, but trust me. I worked in retail for quite some time and can tell you from experience, while complaints can come in droves, compliments are few and far between. And when you do receive a compliment passed on from upper management, it can really put a pep back in your step, especially after the holidays, which can be exhausting for anyone working retail. 
  3.  Make homemade cards. It’s probably the most simple, effective way to put a smile on someone’s face. 
  4. Pay for someone’s coffee. Or deliver some to your favorite friend whose baby has been up all night teething. 
  5. Family game night. Have a game night with sweets and popcorn. Make it extra Valentine’s Day-ey with this game I just made up right this second. Everyone gets a few slips of paper. On each piece of paper, each family member writes down what they like about each family member. You put all the papers in a bowl and draw one thing out at a time and try to guess who the paper is about. Sounds fun, right? If you have younger ones who don’t write yet, you can just go around in a circle and talk about a favorite memory you have with each family member.

Valentine’s Day doesn’t have to be about romantic love at all. If the romance or marketing of the holiday irritates you, you don’t have to abandon it altogether. Instead, you can use it as a reminder to celebrate the love shared between friends, family, and community. I like to think of Valentine’s Day as a reminder to simply spread the love. A call to make someone smile the way my teacher made all of us smile years ago.