Bring the love to your family this month with 5 simple Valentine’s Day traditions! All the information you need to start a new tradition this February is here.
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February is called the month of love. But sometimes it can feel like the month of fill-in-the-blank (crying, whining, complaining, fighting, etc). In an attempt to bring a little more love into your family’s lives, check out one of the 5 simple Valentine’s Day traditions below. Whether you pick one, pick all five, or somewhere in between, I hope it creates some happy, loving feelings in your home.
Heart Attack
Have you ever opened your front door to find paper hearts stuck all over it? If so, you’ve been “heart attacked”! This is a simple Valentine’s tradition that is also easy to prep ahead of time. All you need is colored construction paper, scissors, a marker and tape. Fold a few pieces of construction paper in half and cut half of a heart shape. Repeat this until you have 14 hearts for each member of your family.
Then, write something on each heart specific to each family member. For example, something you admire, appreciate, or love about them. I recommend doing one family member at a time and then storing the hearts in a zipper bag. Each day leading up to Valentine’s Day, add another heart to their door. Just taking the time to write down kind words and share them will help grow the love in your home.
Kindness Countdown
Kindness to others is a great way to show your love for them. Meg from The Many Little Joys has a “Kindness Countdown” that combines the fun of an advent calendar with the joy of doing something nice for someone else. You can download the kindness countdown heart printable from her site with 14 ideas all ready to go. She also shares tips for how to make this activity work for your family so it’s simple and fun!
Family Valentine Dinner
One of my kids favorite ways to celebrate holidays is by doing a themed meal. For example, we have a pumpkin dinner we always do in the fall and a St. Patrick’s Day breakfast that are so much fun! Our family Valentine dinner is usually somewhere around Valentine’s Day but not necessarily on February 14th. This allows for flexibility with school activities, extracurriculars and other scheduling needs.
To have a family Valentine dinner, we generally have food/drinks that is red, pink or white (and sometimes purple). Sometimes this requires coloring our food, such as making pink mashed potatoes. When my kids were young, I came up with the menu myself. Now that they are getting older, I will often pick one of my older two kids to help me plan the menu. They love coming up with a fun menu and helping prepare it. This is a simple Valentine’s tradition that my kids look forward to each February.
Love Note Station
Teaching our kids from a young age to show love and appreciate for the members of their family is important. But because they are kids, they aren’t always going to think about saying what they love and appreciate. (I think this goes for adults too.) That’s why creating a love note station is so perfect!
All you need for this simple Valentine’s Day tradition is paper, pens/markers and a small container or tray to keep it organized. You can use plain or construction paper for the notes. Or you can download the love notes printable from my site to print out. Just cut the notes out using scissors or a paper trimmer and place them in a bowl with the rest of your love not station supplies.
I also recommend having a designated place for each person to receive their love notes. We have small mailboxes that I found at Walmart, but you could have your kids create Valentine boxes, decorate an envelope or put their name on a glass jar. The container is less important than encouraging your kids to think about what they love about their sibling(s) and to write it down.
For kids who are too young to write, you can give them paper (plain or construction), paper hearts, stickers and markers so they can make their own love notes to give out.
Valentine Jokes Decoding Activity
If the amount of joke books my kids bring home from the school library is any indication, they love telling and hearing jokes. They also love using secret codes to decode jokes. I created this printable with silly Valentine’s jokes for them to decode last year and they had so much fun with it!
There are three jokes and it’s a great way to keep them entertained for 10-15 minutes. (Maybe while you are making dinner.) Or you could do this as an family activity and see who the fastest decoder is and let them pick the dessert for the night.
If you want another Valentine’s themed secret code activity for your kids, you can find another one from The Many Little Joys.
Remember that creating traditions doesn’t haven’t to be complicated, time-consuming or stressful. No matter how many of these simple Valentine’s Day traditions you choose to try out this year, I’m sure your family will feel more love!
