I kind of hate Valentine’s Day. Supposedly, Valentine’s Day is an annual celebration of love. Right? Well, I’m not so sure our children would agree. Valentine’s Day is all about red, white and pink decorations and heart-embellished handouts. If your kids are in school or daycare, you buy boxes of character-themed cards to share with friends (preferably with candy or stickers attached). However, these cards should have no names on them lest handing them out in class takes too long! The kids have class parties where they play heart-themed games and eat heart-themed foods. They receive red, white, and pink pencils, erasers, and of course more candy to take home. I mean, yes, our kids can clearly see Valentine’s Day is a love-themed holiday, because of all the red, white and pink hearts, but… hmmm… are you thinking love right now? Or are you thinking stuff? I am not a fan of all the stuff!
However, the main message of Valentine’s Day is love: celebrating those we love, giving them little gifts to show we care. I can totally get behind this concept. The day is an opportunity to teach our kids that they can (and should) take a few minutes of their day to make someone happy. In this case, we can show our love by sending a personal note. Grandparents, cousins, friends: whoever the special people are in your life surely deserve a bit of happy in theirs. So, step away from the red, white and pink aisle at CVS, take out your arts and crafts supplies, because it’s time to make some valentines.
Today I wanted to share a simple Valentine’s Day craft which we did last weekend. It is ridiculously easy and appropriate for every age group. We cut out simple hearts in various colors. Each child then picked a few and decorated them for loved ones. At the end, we packed them up and sent an envelope to each set of grandparents and a few other friends. Total time? I think we made it under an hour. Total smiles created: so many!
You can cut out your own hearts, or use the pdf template below. We used letter-sized cardstock and pastel colors, but there are no rules. There is no need to buy special envelopes. We had leftovers from Christmas cards, but the hearts will fit in any envelope (just fold any hearts that are too large). Grab your crayons, markers, stickers, and stamps and have some fun!
Do you have any ideas for making Valentine’s day a bit less commercialized? Share below.
