The Town of Odyssey

When we were kids, I'm sure we all passed out valentines at school. Now that I'm older and single, I usually don't put a whole lot of stock into celebrating. However, I'm curious. What does Valentine's Day mean to you?

I was homeschooled, so no passing out valentines at school, and I've never even been on a single date. The only valentines I've ever received were from my Grandma, and I've never sent any. Frankly, the holiday kinda depresses me, it simply reminds me that I've always been single, and probably always will be.

I still like to hand out Valentines to friends and family members sometimes. I bought nice glittery cards for my little nieces this year, plus a few books and stuff like that. I don't celebrate Valentine's Day in a "romantic date" kind of way (due to the lack of handsome volunteers to be my romantic date) but I do like to buy cinnamon hearts and Valentine cards just for fun.

I noticed Purdys Chocolates (which is delicious, by the way) is advertising anti-Valentine's day chocolate products in addition to the traditional boxes, which I thought was kind of fun. One option:
https://www.purdys.com/nope-mini-favourites-6-pc

My mom has always done an amazing job at making Valentine's Day special for each of us kids. She still makes cards for us with the most beautiful personalized litters inside and always gives us flowers and a little bag of chocolate. It's also a family tradition that we always have heart-shaped pizza for dinner on Valentine's Day.

A couple years ago one of my gal pals and I got all dressed up and went to dinner at a fancy restaurant, and that was fun too.

I know a lot of single people like to be humbugs about Valentine's Day, but I enjoy any chance I get to celebrate something that makes people happy, even if it doesn't pertain particularly to me.

ByeByeBrownie wrote: ↑Sat Jan 22, 2022 11:24 am I know a lot of single people like to be humbugs about Valentine's Day, but I enjoy any chance I get to celebrate something that makes people happy, even if it doesn't pertain particularly to me.

I'm a humbug about it myself, but the real reason is because public displays of affection make me uncomfortable. If people are being particularly mushy about it, I like to bring up The St Valentine's Day massacre of 1349. Hopefully it kills the mood enough to where I don't have to watch people loudly kissing while I'm trying to enjoy a piece of chocolate. (yes, I'm a terrible person sometimes.)

It's a holiday that I really don't think should be a holiday. It's like those internet holidays like Platypus Day (apparently the first Saturday of March for anyone wondering). I get it, St Valentine died for the right cause, marriage is extremely important, but I feel like what Bart Rathbone said is more applicable to the holiday as it's being celebrated, "Greedy storekeepers invented it to make an extra buck between Christmas and Easter."

Christmas and Easter, (at least if you celebrate them acknowledging the importance of Christ's birth and resurrection) are important holidays because ultimately the glory is going to God for his incredible love. Same thing with Independence Day (or similar holidays for other countries) if what you're celebrating what God did, allowing the founding of your country. I sadly doubt very many Christians use Valentines day as an opportunity to give thanks to God for their marriage. I'm not trying to be a jealous wet blanket, just pointing out that it's kinda a pointless holiday in my mind.

Our family's only tradition (besides me saying "EWW, Gross!" when mom and dad are all mushy) is eating the candy dad brings home from work. He's an elementary school teacher so the kids give him a bunch of candy. One time when I was a kid, instead of giving the candy to all of us, he put the valentines candy with the candy kids could earn doing a church program called bible quizzing. It was a bummer in the moment, but it meant that us bible quizzers could enjoy the incredible tasting Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles lollipops for years to come.

I love to celebrate holidays in general, and Valentine's Day is no exception! Growing up, my Mom would give us each Valentines and something small like pencils, stickers, and some candy...as I got older, my Dad started getting me a tiny little pot of roses. I would make Valentines for all my siblings, and we'd do some red/heart shaped foods for supper.

Now that I'm married, I love celebrating with my husband, and most certainly DO thank God for him and for the gift that marriage is to us.
I also have continued my mom's tradition, and I get Valentine gifts for my kids, decorate a little bit, and make themed foods.
Haven't started decorating yet, but probably will put out what I have in another week or so.

I admit being slightly bummed about Valentine's Day these years, because I'm single, and have always been single with no danger or risk of that changing, and it is entirely plausible I will remain so for the rest of my life. A holiday about couples seems harder to celebrate when you're not directly a part of it. I can be a very sentimental person when I'm given the chance*, and with all of the things I like to brood over already, it's probably easier for me emotionally to forget that the holiday exists than to think about it too deeply.

That isn't hard to do, though, because my father's birthday happens to be the same day as Valentine's Day. The national holiday tends to be overridden by the specificity of our local holiday.

* I'm the kind of person who can be both upset and relieved by Mark 12:25 - on the one hand, because it seems on the surface that a special relationship is diminished (if you had one), but on the other hand, you have a guarantee that you won't spend eternity shut out of the existence of so many people you care about.

my wife and i like to celebrate valentine's by forgetting it's coming up until february 13th, then texting each other "oh shoot. valentine's day is tomorrow. what are we doing for it?" and then i order her flowers and pray real hard that there are still delivery slots available. then we usually order takeout and watch a movie. we have a kid who can actually do stuff now, though, so we'll probably get him some candy or something and he'll probably wake up 6 times while we're trying to eat our takeout and watch a movie.

I'm a teacher and I love decorating my classroom so Valentine decorations are already up. They're always stuff the kids make. It looks awesome.
During Valentine's I tell all my friends that they are my Valentine and that I'm expecting chocolates and flowers as a joke. I have one friend who sends me a picture of flowers and chocolates haha.

This year I'm making them Valentine videos. I'm pretty excited about them

I'm homeschooled, and we never did the 'exchange valentines at school' thing, but when I was younger I remember my dad getting me this little stuffed puppy for valentines day and I was thrilled!
When I actually think ahead I try to write some valentine cards for my friends, but I'm not usually that on top of things
We don't normally do anything for it though, and it's just any other regular day of the week.

I remember having Super Mario Valentines to hand out at some point in elementary school and it was pretty rad.

KnittingFun14 wrote: ↑Wed Feb 02, 2022 9:01 pm I'm homeschooled, and we never did the 'exchange valentines at school' thing, but when I was younger I remember my dad getting me this little stuffed puppy for valentines day and I was thrilled!
When I actually think ahead I try to write some valentine cards for my friends, but I'm not usually that on top of things
We don't normally do anything for it though, and it's just any other regular day of the week.

That's so special about the puppy. Any chance you still have it?

Bren wrote: ↑Sun Feb 06, 2022 9:16 pm

KnittingFun14 wrote: ↑Wed Feb 02, 2022 9:01 pm I'm homeschooled, and we never did the 'exchange valentines at school' thing, but when I was younger I remember my dad getting me this little stuffed puppy for valentines day and I was thrilled!
When I actually think ahead I try to write some valentine cards for my friends, but I'm not usually that on top of things
We don't normally do anything for it though, and it's just any other regular day of the week.

That's so special about the puppy. Any chance you still have it?

I believe I do, yes. Well worn but still intact