Happy Valentine’s Day!

Valentine’s Day has developed a bad reputation nowadays, likely due to how commercialized it has gotten and that it’s marketed purely as a romantic holiday. However, it doesn’t have to be either of those. As I talked about in this post, Valentine’s Day in my family was always celebrated as a day to be thankful for everyone you love in your life. Sure, it sucked being at school surrounded by couples “in love” (or pretending to be) when I was single, but when I got home we’d celebrate as a family!

Today’s post is going to be a quick how-to guide for how to celebrate Valentine’s Day with anyone and make it special! None of these ideas require you to spend a lot of money. In fact, with some creativity, these ideas can be completely free!

How To Celebrate Valentine’s Day with Anyone in Your Life

These tips can be used to celebrate in a group or one-on-one, and work for people of all genders. It’s all about being creative and putting a lot of thought into what you’re doing.

First, think about the people you love (in any way, not just romantically). This is important because you’ll want to personalize the celebration for the people/person you’re celebrating with! Then, make sure they’ll be available to celebrate with you.

If the person isn’t going to be available to actually spend time together, you can still celebrate with them by calling them or sending them a nice card to say you’re thinking about them and love them.

Now, start brainstorming. What do you enjoy doing together? Is there something that they’ve always wanted to do that there hasn’t been time to do? Did you used to do something together all the time, but then life got in the way?

One of my best friends lives in a different state, so I’ll text her to tell her I love her, and might suggest watching one of our favorite movies “together” because it makes us think about each other. (Several of my best friends live in different states, so they will all get “I love you” texts.) Another one of my best friends and I, before she had children, loved going to those paint-n-sip classes together! If I was celebrating with her, we could make the time to go to one of those classes, or use a YouTube video to paint at home and include her children.

Some fun ideas to make it feel a little more special (these require spending a little money):

• Buy a bouquet of chocolate to share.
• Get matching jewelry for you and your best friend. Kind of like friendship bracelets, but not as obvious.
• Exchange “thinking of you” cards.
• Get crafty and make the cheesiest Valentine’s Day cards you can, and then exchange those.

Going out to spend time with the people you love will make Valentine’s Day feel special, even if you aren’t in a romantic relationship! I’ll be calling/texting my loved ones to make sure they all know how special they are to me.

With a little creativity, Valentine’s Day doesn’t have to be a lonely holiday for anyone!