I hope you have all had a good start to the year. It’s been a rough start in general with the pandemic still happening, but I am hopeful things will get better slowly but surely. With the pandemic still happening, I have been celebrating each holiday even bigger than I have before. But let’s be real, I’ve always been a bit extra so I love having a reason to celebrate anything.
With Valentine’s Day being on a Sunday this year, I wanted to share ideas to have a safe and fun Valentine’s Day, whether you’re like me celebrating with your kids or a couple celebrating just you two. And since Valentine’s Day is on a Sunday, these are things you can do anytime this month or you can plan an entire Valentine’s Day weekend of fun.
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1. Decorate your home for the holiday
Since you’re spending most of your time at home, why not go all out and decorate your home a little? If you’ve never decorated for the holiday before, you can easily pick up a few festive things at almost any store. My favorite places to buy decorations are Target, HomeGoods, and Michael’s. But I’ve even seen stores like Walgreens and CVS have some great options too. If you’re not going into stores right now, I’ve also found cute options on Amazon.
2. Make a Countdown
If you’re a mom and have kids like mine, you’re kids will love a Valentine’s Day countdown. You can easily make one with paper hearts, or you can use this one I found on Amazon. If you do the option with paper hearts, every day you can write a reason “Why I Love You” on each heart.
3. Make Valentine’s Day Cards to send to Family & Friends
Remember how fun it was to give and receive Valentine’s Day cards in elementary school? Go the extra mile this year and show people you miss seeing that you love them by sending them a fun Valentine’s Day card. You can make the cards yourself for a fun activity. Craft stores like Michael’s have fun kits you can purchase in case you need some help getting started. Or if you’re short on time, here’s a few of my favorite Valentine’s Day cards I’ve found.
4. Cook a Meal Together
This Valentine’s Day may be at home this year but that doesn’t mean it has to be like every other day at home. If you aren’t supporting your local restaurants with their take-out, cook up a meal together as a family or couple. In our area, places like Sur La Table are offering at-home cooking classes that can still be a romantic way to celebrate at home. If you’re on a budget, consider planning the meal together before hand and choosing recipes together that you can all make together on actual Valentine’s Day.
5. Bake Heart Shaped Treats Together
If cooking is too complex or time consuming for your liking, consider baking a dessert or heart-shaped Valentine’s Day sweet together. Some fun treats to make with kids are things like heart-shaped cookies or heart-shaped rice krispie treats. If you are a cookie mix type of person, here’s one kit that includes the mix, sprinkles, and heart-shaped cookie cutter!
6. Have a Picnic
If you’re like my family and crave to be outdoors, take your Valentine’s Day meal and baked goods outside for a picnic! I know in other parts of the country it might be too cold for a picnic, but here in California, you can definitely still have a lunchtime picnic. Doing a picnic is also gives you the chance to let your kids run off all the sugar they’ve consumed from the delicious heart shaped treats.
7. Have a Tea Party
This is actually what we’ll be doing this year with our girls. We do a lot of picnics and trunk picnics so for Valentine’s Day we have decided to switch things up with a tea party! I picked up some festive Valentine’s Decorations at Target and the 99 Cents Only Store, and I found some fun tea party things on Amazon.
8. Have an At-Home Spa Day
And last but not least, if you want to have a truly relaxing Valentine’s Day at home, plan an at-home spa day! This is activity that can be done with the entire family or as a couple. If you’re doing it with the kids, get a pedicure spa and some fun kid-friendly nail polish. If you want to go all out on the spa day for the adults, purchase an at-home spa kit that has everything you need!
Whatever you decide to do for Valentine’s Day, I hope you do it with people you love. Whether you’re a family, a couple, or single, the day is to celebrate love so enjoy the day at home doing things with those you love – and that includes loving yourself!
Zherr-Anne, the Fil-Am Mama 