Make Valentine’s Day special by reaching out to family and friends
Published 11:30 am Tuesday, February 11, 2025
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Valentine’s Day is a special day to share your love with those around you.
With that in mind, you might celebrate the holiday by sending a card to a family member you love or miss and share with them all the ways their love makes you happy, or spend some time with friends you care about.
You can even reach out to those you don’t know who might be a little bit lonely this holiday.
Valentine’s Day is thought of as a day for couples in love to exchange flowers, jewelry, cards, and chocolate or enjoy a romantic evening at a fancy restaurant. But it is more than just a celebration of love between couples.
Historically, Friday is a celebration of Saint Valentine, a third-century Roman saint widely celebrated on Feb. 14 and commonly associated with “courtly love,” a Medieval European concept emphasizing nobility, chivalry, and selfless acts of charity.
While enjoying a romantic evening at a fancy restaurant is a wonderful tradition, keep in mind that Valentine’s Day can be about more than one kind of love. In fact, the modern version of Valentine’s Day is growing to become more about celebrating your love for everyone in your life.
With that in mind, you might celebrate the holiday by sending a card to a family member you love or miss and share with them all the ways their love makes you happy, or spend some time with friends you care about.
You can even reach out to those you don’t know who might be a little bit lonely this holiday. You can make or buy a card for someone in a local nursing home or a Meals on Wheels recipient. You can send a valentine to someone in the community, expressing your gratitude. Among these people are firefighters, policemen, nurses, Sunday School teachers, as well as public school teachers.
We would also encourage you to keep in mind those who see this day as an annual reminder of love they lost, long for, or perhaps never had. Send flowers or candy to someone who lives alone, or reach out to a single parent or widow or widower with a gesture of loving care.
People should decide what they want their Valentine’s Day to be about. It can be about showing love for all the important people in your life, or it can be about all the cute trinkets they find at Walmart.
Be creative and find ways to spread non-intimate sentiments of love to those who simply need someone to care.
Valentine’s Day can be an expensive date you’ll tell your grandchildren about, a night out with friends with gossip and laughter over tacos, a night to yourself covered in a facemask and munching on chocolate-covered strawberries, or just another day.
But regardless, it is about love and people, and there are great ways to celebrate. No one should feel bad about how they choose to spend the day.