Beech Tree News Network

Valentine’s Day is an interesting holiday. It’s an exciting holiday for children and young people. But, as we age, I’m not sure Valentine’s Day celebrations hold the same excitement.

According to the Internet, candy and chocolate are the most-often-given Valentine’s Day gifts. The next most popular gift is flowers, which is followed by jewelry (ranking fourth). Each year, about $13.19 billion is spent celebrating Valentine’s Day: gifts, dates, parties, etc. Domestically, cut flowers reap revenues of about $400 million. Jewelry stores in the U.S. averaged $2.2 billion in sales annually with many of their sales occurring during the Valentine’s Day season (http://www.reporternews.com/news/2013/feb/09/business-buzz-valentines-da...). Also, approximately 180 million Valentine’s Day cards are exchanged annually, making this holiday the second most popular greeting-card-giving holiday. About 50 percent of these cards are purchased in the six days prior to the holiday (http://www.squidoo.com/valentines-day-statistics).

I asked a few friends and family members what gift they would like for Valentine’s Day and why. The responses
•    Time with my Valentine. There isn’t enough quality time available in the course of a routine day.
•    I’d like to see everybody around me happy.
•    This year, I’d like to have new perfume, but sometimes I like candy and a sweet card.
•    I would love to have a candlelit dinner and a massage; but since that’s not going to happen, I want a night alone with my husband.
•    Pink roses and candy (Ferrero Rocher)!
•    I would like a massage gift certificate or something to treat myself that I wouldn’t normally do.
•    I don’t know. I would rather have something thoughtful and useful (not candy or knickknacks to put in the closet) or just a nice night on the town with my special person.
•    I’d like a dinner date with my husband because we work different shifts and after 25 years, I still enjoy his company.
•    I want a lab puppy.
•    I’d like something that means something.
•    I want something that makes my life easier/better (examples: cook for me or give me a certificate for a massage).
•    Something thoughtful.
•    I don’t really know. Maybe flowers or jewelry because they are thoughtful, and who doesn’t love either of them?
•    Dinner and movie/show with my sweetheart – and “us” time to shut the world out. Also, family time for the rest of my valentines.
•    Valentine’s Day isn’t especially important. I know my husband loves me all the time; it doesn’t take anything special.

Like many of you, my early memories of this holiday include the hand-decorated shoe box and cards for each of my classmates (In retrospect, I’m amazed that my mom found so many boxes every year for her children to decorate. Our elementary school went through grade 8, and at one point, she had five children in that school – not so unusual back then.). Then for years, my late husband would have four stacks of surprises in the dining room: one for each daughter and for me. Now, I enjoy watching my granddaughters’ Valentine’s Day anticipation: at ages four and six, a Valentine’s Day surprise is definitely exciting.

Although several websites cautioned that “53% of women in America would dump their boyfriend if they did not get them anything for Valentine's Day,” the day is usually a fun time. As someone said, “Love puts the fun in together, the sad in apart, and the joy in a heart.”