Valentine's Day

I overheard my nine year-old son on the phone the other day talking to my mother and giving her his “wish list” for Valentine’s Day.  It consisted of about five different Lego sets.  He then hung up and preceded to tell me he wanted some Xbox games and a DVD movie, and with the money he would be getting from his other grandparents, he would buy some iPod apps.  My daughter then piped in that she would like a lady bug and a purple dog stuffed animal, of course dressed in the latest lady bug and glamour dog fashions. 

I have one question: When did Valentine’s Day turn into another Christmas? 

My daughter even thought she would be getting the day off from school.  “What? We have to go to school on Valentine’s Day, seriously?” she asked me, astonished that she would be in school on Feb. 14th. 

When I was younger, the extent of any gift I received on Valentine’s Day was a $5 bill in a card sent to me by my grandparents.  I may have gotten a few more bucks from my parents and a box of candy hearts, but that was about it. 

But nowadays, it seems this holiday has been “supersized.”  Starting right after New Year’s Day, the stores become draped in red hearts, and we are inundated with advertisements for Valentine’s Day flower arrangements, jewelry, stuffed animals and chocolate candy.

My husband calls it a “Hallmark holiday” and believes like some that it was created by the greeting card companies to pressure us to spend more money.  And even though I am a romantic at heart, I agree with him somewhat, especially since the price of a greeting card these days can run as much as $5 or even higher with pre-recorded sayings. 

So in an effort to help balance out all of the commercialism of this very commercial holiday for my family, I felt a compromise was in order.  I succumbed to giving my kids one thing off their list and let the grandparents spoil them as they saw fit.  And I threw in a box of store-bought Valentine’s Day cards for them to hand out to their classmates.  But instead of spending additional money for cards for our family, we got out the construction paper, scissors, glue and markers and created our own special Valentine’s Day cards that will hopefully hold much more meaning to the recipients than buying them at the store. 

I must admit, though, that I am not so innocent myself when it comes to this holiday.  I too, have dropped hints in the past couple of weeks to my “Valentine” for some things on my own “wish list,” even though, just seven weeks ago, I received everything I wanted (but didn’t really need) for Christmas.  It’s just something about all the flashy, sparkly, glittery red baubles that are so attractive and enticing this time of the year that I just cannot resist.  I suppose I can see now where my kids learned the behavior.  But hey, can you blame a girl?