How do you really feel about Valentine's Day?

I always dreaded it in school, and now I am indifferent.

I didn’t even know it was Monday. To celebrate, I’ll buy chocolates on sale on Tuesday!

It’s just another day to me.

This is the first year in which I will be in a relationship with someone on Valentine’s Day. I will be working most of the day and after I clock out we have class until six (we’ll be discussing the differences between versions A and B of Doctor Faustus.)

I don’t really feel much of anything for the day itself. I just want to spend time together.

I think it is a waste of time and money. I don’t need a special day to do something nice for/with my husband. I kind of feel the same way about anniversaries. I’m not the romantic type.

I honestly don’t give a bibble. I don’t think it’s this “great evil”; I just don’t think it’s a big deal. I’ll celebrate it because I have a boyfriend and I want candy. So what?

(Also, I just got a box of chocolates in the mail from my parents for Valentine’s Day. It was kind of embarrassing, but kind of awesome at the same time).

I like ‘don’t give a bibble’, GA

I think it is commercial crap, but I love my husband and take any opportunity for a love fest. I don’t need presents… just special times.

Money money money! As a street musician, I’ll be playing sappy love songs all night and making BANK.

My husband always says he doesn’t care for the contrived or manufactured holidays that have become commercial opportunities to exploit our sense of guilt and obligation to others for the profit of the mass merchandisers. He says, “I’d rather pay attention to the dates we made ourselves, like anniversaries and birthdays.”

I agree with him in principle, but I also like a little prompting and reminding to express our warm sentiments more than once a year. Some guys just don’t think of it otherwise, you know?—especially after more than three decades. (Now, a brand new sweetie is another matter.)

So I like to buy sweet and pretty valentines for my family, and I like to get some little remembrance from them. We also have a tradition of decorating cupcakes (here are mine from last year). But there’s no need for any kind of present. It’s pretty easy to ignore the commercial aspects if you stay away from TV.

I like the cup cake idea Jeruba. That’s a good one.

There’s a story there, @Mz_Lizzy. When my older son was three, he had observed that there are special things we do for each holiday, and that’s kind of what makes it a holiday. When Valentine’s Day came along, Christmas was still pretty fresh in his mind, so he said, “What do we do for Valentine’s Day?” Unprepared for the question, I answered on the spur of the moment: “We make heart-shaped sugar cookies with red sprinkles on them.”

Quick-quick, I sent my mother a call for help. Her sugar cookies were one of the perfections of my youth. Hadn’t I watched her and helped her scores of times? Back came her recipe in short order.

Sugar cookies. My gosh, what a hopeless battle of wills that was, with sticky dough, sticky rolling pin, sticky cookie cutter, and everything utterly resistant to my bidding. Grrrr. My three-year-old watched solemnly as I tried not to cry or swear. Somehow we got through it. And I promised myself, “No more sugar cookies until I’ve forgotten the pain of this time.”

The following year as Valentine’s Day neared, he asked me again, “What do we do?” I answered brightly, “We make cupcakes!”

And we’ve been making them ever since. He’s 27 now.

That is beautiful and frankly, a wonderful symbol of what valentine’s day really is about. Those sugar cookies (and now your cup cakes) are made with love and are a family tradition. Thank you for sharing your story. I loved it.

Sad Monday? That’s not gonna fly.

@nikipedia Will you be my fluthertine?

__ Yes

__ No

Just another day.

Meh. But we do buy (or make) cards for one another.

@Jeruba I love that story!

I hate it and I would stab it with a knife eleventy-billion times, if I could.

We used to do cards and split a small box of chocolates. Then we started going to a wine tasting held at or near the date. It has become the tradition. We skip the cards and chocolates. (Sorry Hallmark and Whitman.)

I like the challenge of a pre-established day that says show me your love, it will be a good day for sure! ;)

I am excited and love everything about it! :)

It’s just some random day that coincidentally takes place the day after shawarma day (13 February). Hmm, garlic…

It’s a cute holiday. I am saying that now, though, because I’m in a relationship.

Bums me out a bit when I’m not.

I like it. It reminds me to not take the s/o for granted, plus I like the way flowers brighten things up and smell good in the middle of winter. We don’t go overboard, but it is a nice reminder.

I love that day as I love spoiling women. Women who know me deserve to be spoiled!

Just gotta find me a new one to spoil!

I’m pretty indifferent to it. We have a nice dinner, but we do that the majority of the time anyway because of the way my husband cooks. We don’t really get each other gift, but sometimes I’ll get him a card just as something a little different. My son takes Valentine’s to school for his classmates and they have parties (it’s today instead of Monday this year). So he gets a lot of little Valentine’s from his classmates and a sugar high.

I don’t think about it, and I’m single as well.

I don’t want to jump to conclusions, but I think it’s safe to say that single people are “ehh..” about it, while people who have someone have the honour of appreciating it. Am I right?

@Axemusica I don’t think so. I’m married and indifferent about it. We don’t need a set day to do nice things for each other and I actually find it a bit offensive that any company thinks they have the right to tell me or my husband how we have to be romantic and show we love each other. If others want to do that, good for them, but I’ll take all the other things my husband and I do for each other throughout the year over one day certain industries think we should be nice to each other.

Just another day. @Axemusica I am in a relationship and we don’t do anything specifically for V day. We don’t need an excuse for nekkid time!!!

@Leanne1986, Good ‘ol nekkid time. I do miss that so. :)

Meh. My anniversary is so close to Valentine’s Day, as well as my daughter’s birthday…it just doesn’t rank really high up there.

@Seaofclouds I understand your point. I don’t use it like it gives me an excuse to be indifferent to her for the other 364 days of the year.

@Adirondackwannabe It’s not just about using it as an excuse to not do things the other 364 days, it’s more about only doing it because someone else says you should be doing it and not necessarily just because you want to do it. Sure you wouldn’t do it if you really didn’t want to, but would you necessarily have thought to buy/do whatever it is you give her right then and there if someone wasn’t telling you that you have to do something for her on this specific day? I don’t want my husband to do something nice for me because someone else tells him to, I want him to do it because he wants to do it on his own.

@Seaofclouds I’m impressed. I think you just put into words the definition of a loving relationship with those answers. Valentines day every day.:)

Same as New Years Day, Groundhogs Day, St. Patricks Day, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, and Secretary’s Week. Indifferent. I couldn’t care less either way and don’t do nothing special on any of those days to commemorate in any way.

My anniversary falls two days before it. We basically use it as an excuse to extend the fun (though this year I’ll be working on all three days of our celebration).

@funkdaddy, I’m still waiting breathlessly to see her answer to your gallant invitation. If she doesn’t take it up, I’m tempted to myself.

_ x _ Yes

__ No

<3!

This is the time in 4 years I will be single on Valentine’s Day. Mostly what bugs me is memories of what me and my ex did on V-day, etc.

But this year me and my bff Matt are going to go to dinner by ourselves and probably make martinis and watch old movies, and give Vday the bird BECAUSE WE LOVE OURSELVES AND THAT’S ENOUGH :|

I’ve always enjoyed it, far long before I ever had any lover to celebrate it with. In my family then we’d give each other Valentine cards, look forward to the Necco wafer tasting heart candies, chocolate truffles and usually some little piece of jewelry my mother had been tucking away.

When I became an adult and was married then Vday was a lot of fun to plan surprise gifts, fun dinners, a dress up opportunity, the calender cleared for romance! I love getting fresh flowers that perfume the house, having a little champagne I don’t indulge in except for holidays and maybe some red meat, things I try to avoid most of the time. Vday to me is a treat to be shared between lovers, kind of like a birthday but something you share.

Hurray, @nikipedia! Have a great day, you two.