Valentine’s Day with the Family
St. Valentine’s day, with the focus all on love, is one of the great smaller holidays to start building traditions with your kids!
I mean, what better to celebrate than love?
Usually, people think of St. Valentine’s Day as a romantic holiday, but if the focus is on love, then it makes complete sense that this can be a family holiday, too!
Bonding with your kids is the best way to show your love for them. And traditions are an amazing way to build some of those bonds!
Using Valentine’s Day Family Traditions to Create Memories
Unfortunately, people can be intimidated by the word, ‘traditions.’ Maybe you think of some complicated ritual that takes lots of money and time to put together?
It doesn’t have to be that way! Traditions are just “long-established customs or beliefs that have been passed on from one generation to another.” Essentially, they’re something you do, that’s passed from one generation (you) to another (your kids). If you find a great one that sticks, then you’ve got a tradition! Ta-da!
One of the really cool parts about how our childhood memories work is that we tend to remember either what happened all the time, or the singular events that shaped us. Creating a Valentine’s Day tradition is an almost sure-fire way to make sure your kids remember the good things from their childhood.
Easy Valentine’s Day Family Traditions
The good news is that creating new traditions doesn’t have to be hard! In fact, I highly recommend keeping it simple and do-able.
Because, let’s be real. The simple and do-able activities are the ones you’ll repeat next year, and are the ones that get happy memories tied to them, and the ones that become traditions.
As a guide, just think of these 2 things:
- Set the scene and….
- Use your 5 senses
Set the Scene
Just like a good book, you’ll have to decide who the main characters are for your tradition. Will it just be your nuclear family? Are grandparents invited, too? Or is it a class event?
Make sure to do this step first, so that you can accommodate everyone as needed.
Choose the Setting
Where does this tradition occur? It could be at home, in the backyard, at the park, at church, in the car- you can have traditions anywhere! (I’m starting to feel like Mr. Fox in Green Eggs and Ham!) The point is to be purposeful about the choice, not to make it difficult. Or maybe you decide that it’s a rotating venue!
There’s no wrong answer to this, you just have to choose something.
Using Your Senses to Create New Valentine’s Day Traditions
It can be overwhelming when you’re trying to create traditions and memories for your family. How much is enough? How much is too much?
Using your senses can be a great way to create a tradition step-by-step, and solidify great childhood memories. Especially since so many of our memories center around a sensory experience.
Whether it’s a delicious cake that takes you back to your birthday’s growing up, or a sprinkler that reminds you of that great 4th of July, our memories are often tied to our senses.
1. Smell
Smell is especially associated with creating strong memories, so don’t skip this one just because it doesn’t seem obvious. (The olfactory center – i.e. smell- is the closest to the hippocampus, which is your memory area in your brain. This helps explain why smells are especially powerful at transporting us to different times and places.)
–>Valentine’s Day Family Traditions (that incorporate smell):
- Try out these super cute Valentine’s themed coloring pages with scented markers and decorating them with scented stickers. This works especially well if you reserve those markers or stickers for special occasions!
- Scented candles. I assume chocolate and flowers are the smell of Valentine’s, so see if you can find something you like!
- Or you can go for the original fresh cut flowers! You don’t have to splurge, the grocery store ones will smell just as good 😁
2. Sight
I think this is the sense that most obviously leads you to think about pretty Valentine’s day DIY decorations. So, here are some very do-able ideas!
–>Valentine’s Day DIY Decorations
- Cupid’s Bow and Arrow. This sweet decoration can even be used as a kid’s toy when you’re done!
- DIY Valentine’s Day mailboxes. Kids love mail (heck, I love mail when it’s not bills!)
- I love a good garland or banner. Once you find a space in your home where it’s natural to hang a banner, it’s so simple to swap out. And this super simple (and cheap!) garland is easy enough that young kids could even help make it!
3. Taste
This might be the easiest part of a new Valentine’s Day family tradition to take on. You have to eat anyway, right? So why not make a little something special? If you want even more help, just ask your family what they want on the Valentine’s Day menu!
–>Valentine’s Day Menu for Your Family
- These are the sweetest heart-shaped pizzas from Jean over at the Sweet Happy Nest. And they should be able to please even your picky eaters!
- Heart-shaped sugar cookies are the obvious choice, but I love how Mrs. N. shows us how much these simple traditions mean in the long-run.
- Marshmallow Wands seem so easy to make, and you can definitely get the kids involved in this ‘menu’ item!
4. Touch
For Valentine’s Day family traditions that involve the sense of touch, you can do a sensory bin (or something similar) for younger kids. Or you can try hands-on crafts for slightly older kids.
And of course, for touch and Valentine’s day, I definitely recommend lots of physical affection!
Do a spin on the ‘birthday spankings’ and try ‘Valentine’s kisses’ instead. I imagine that would be a big, silly, showy kiss with the littles. Or butterfly kiss, or nose kisses. For older kids/tweens/teens you can even do a European-style kiss-on-the-cheek multiple times (14 times? Like the date?) Do what works for your family- but have fun with it!
–> Ways to Make Valentine’s Day Special for your Family
- These cute “I love you to pieces” hearts are great for elementary age kids. Even the boys will love it since it involves shredding paper!
- Little kids, and any kid who still likes to get hands-on will love this sensory Heart Puffy Paint activity!
- Heart Sensory Soup is a water-y (or, rather soup-y) version of a sensory bin. Which is awesome, because how many times are kids encouraged to do water play in the winter?! And if you’re afraid of the mess, you can do the activity in the tub!
5. Sound
Sound, along with smell, may not be the most obvious sense to consider when building new Valentine’s Day family traditions. Until you remember that music and stories fall in that group! Try making a family playlist for Valentine’s Day (or I’m sure Spotify has a bunch) or reading some Valentine’s day kid books with your little ones.
–> Valentine’s Day Kid Books and Music
- Valentine’s Day Short Stories & Books For Kids This is a great list of Valentine’s Day kid books that are appropriate for toddlers all the way to about mid-elementary school!
- You can even make Valentine’s Day Bookmarks to go along with all the great books you’ll be reading! (Or turn them into Valentine’s to give to friends)Learning a song together is a fun way to incorporate sound into your Valentine’s Day family traditions. This list of preschool songs for Valentine’s Day should get you started!
Easy Valentine’s Day Family Traditions
Creating new family traditions doesn’t have to be hard! If you’re brand-new at this, I recommend starting with just one or two senses this year, and then build-up your Valentine’s Day from there!
And here’s my last tip- make sure to leave yourself a note on your phone with a reminder for Feb. 1 for next year. You can remind yourself of what you did this year and what your hopes & ideas are for next year’s Valentine’s Day family traditions!
If you need more ideas, check out my Valentine’s Day Pinterest board:
Further Reading
- Top 10 Signs Your Child May Have Depression
- 7 Benefits of Therapy for Kids
- 5 Ways to Teach Gratitude to Kids
- When Is My Kid Ready for a Phone?
- Recovering From Caring For A Sick Kid
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