Are you looking for easy Valentine’s Day traditions to start with your family? Look no further! I have 10 super easy traditions you can adopt this Valentine’s Day that are worth the effort.
When you think about Valentine’s Day, what comes to mind? For me, it’s pass-out Valentines, a boxes of chocolates shaped like red hearts, and red roses. Pretty stereotypical. But, I’m going to let you in on a secret. You don’t have to limit your Valentine’s Day celebrations to these classics. Branch out!
Traditions!
Just like other holidays, you can have family traditions for Valentine’s Day that make the day a little bit more meaningful and a little less like a Hallmark money grab. I mean, the sentiment behind Valentine’s Day is good, especially for families. Who doesn’t love love?
Don’t freak out, though. I know half of you probably started feeling itchy as soon as I mentioned family traditions. But trust me. I’m not trying to tell you that you need to find ways to make a whole bunch of extra work for yourself. I highly recommend that you adopt easy Valentine’s Day traditions for your family, emphasis on the easy.
If you’ve been around for any amount of time, you know I’m all about easy, especially when it comes to family traditions. So, trust me when I tell you that everything on this list of easy Valentine’s Day traditions is truly easy. Many of these take almost zero planning and forethought and the ones that do require some planning don’t require much. If you’re up for truly easy Valentine’s Day traditions to make the holiday just a little more meaningful to your family, here are some great options.
Easy Valentine’s Day Traditions
Heart-shaped breakfast
If you’re the kind of person who isn’t super into family traditions for minor holidays, heart-shaped breakfast might be your best pick from this list of easy Valentine’s Day traditions. It knocks out the tradition first thing in the morning and then you can return to your regularly scheduled programming. Are you intrigued? Good!
Now, what can you make for breakfast on Valentine’s Day that’s heart shaped? The answer is pretty much anything you’d normally make for breakfast, besides maybe a bowl of cereal (unless you have some cute heart-shaped bowls). And no, you don’t need artistic skills or fancy equipment to pull this off. All you need is a heart-shaped cookie cutter. Simply make your breakfast as normal, be it pancakes, waffles (toaster waffles are fine), eggs, toast, whatever you normally make. Then take the heart-shaped cookie cutter (larger is better here) and stamp out a heart-shaped piece of breakfast that you can serve your whole family. It’s a super fun way to kick off Valentine’s Day and basically requires no extra effort.
Red/pink food
If you don’t feel confident enough wielding a heart-shaped cookie cutter or you want to keep the Valentine’s Day theme going throughout all of your meals, consider making mostly red or pink food as one of your easy Valentine’s Day traditions. The easiest thing to do here is to just pick foods that are already red or pink for each meal and snack. Think strawberries with breakfast, tomato soup for lunch, my favorite after-school snack of an apple with peanut butter, and spaghetti and meatballs for dinner. Or whatever naturally red foods you’d prefer. This is a great Valentine’s Day tradition for families with small children because we all know that ketchup is a separate food group and is totally festive for Valentine’s Day!
Post-it heart
Unlike heart-shaped breakfast, it does take a little planning to make your loved ones a post-it heart, but I tell you, it’s worth it. All you need to do is buy yourself a package of pink post-it notes, grab a pen, and write a variety of things you love about your people on them. Then, take your post-its and arrange them into a heart on your loved one’s bedroom door or bathroom mirror for a cute surprise when he or she wakes up on Valentine’s Day.
You might be thinking to yourself, but Sara, I have really young kids who can’t read. Why would I do this? Because you can read the post-it notes to your kids and bond over what you love so much about them. I’d argue it’s actually better than having your literate family members just read the notes for themselves.
Flowers
Of course, giving someone flowers on Valentine’s Day is not a novel idea. Flowers are synonymous with Valentine’s Day for many people. But for this easy Valentine’s Day tradition, I’m going to suggest that you let the kids be the recipients of the flowers. You don’t have to get them fancy bouquets, a single rose or carnation on their breakfast plates or when you pick them up from school will make them feel just as special.
Family picture
One of my favorite easy Valentine’s Day traditions is to snap a family picture. It doesn’t have to be fancy. You don’t have to be wearing pink or red (although I do recommend a Valentine’s Day t-shirt as a great simple Valentine gift for kids). No one needs makeup. Just take a family selfie so you can look back on all the love your family shares year after year. That’s what Valentine’s Day should be about anyway.
Handmade cards
If you’re a crafty mom, consider pulling out the art supplies and having your whole family make Valentine’s Day cards for one another. You can get as fancy as you want with these, but all you really need is some construction paper and markers. Maybe some stickers if your kids are obsessed like mine. Just please, do yourself a favor and leave the glitter out of it. Seriously, I’d like a word with whoever invented glitter.
Love jar
If you like the idea of an easy Valentine’s Day tradition that you can keep for years to come, but you don’t like the idea of the potential mess that can come with making homemade cards, the love jar might be for you. Simply cut colored paper into small squares (each person in the family gets a different color) and set the squares out in a central location next to a jar and a pen for the week or so before Valentine’s Day. Invite your family members to jot down things they love about the other members of the family and stick them in the jar. Then, on Valentine’s Day, you can go through the jar and have a full-on family love fest.
If your kids can’t write yet, not to worry. You can write what they dictate to you, or you can tell them the letters they need to write for a little letter and phonics practice.
Decorate
I know you just finally got your house back from all the Christmas decorations. More decorations are the last thing you want. But hear me out. Your kids get so much out of just a little pop of holiday decoration here and there. It’s worth a tiny bit of extra clutter for couple of weeks. And when I say a tiny bit, I mean it. All I’m suggesting is that you maybe fill a vase with conversation hearts and put it in the middle of the kitchen table or hang a pink wreath on the back door. That’s it. You can deal with that. I can deal with that. Go buy yourself a bag of conversation hearts.
Movie night
Up until very recently, I would scoff when people suggested movie nights with kids. My kids have just recently learned to sit still for longer than 30 seconds, so I’m jumping on their newfound attention span and adding a movie night to my list of easy Valentine’s Day traditions.
Before I had kids, my Valentine’s Day tradition was to open a pint of Ben & Jerry’s (Heath Bar Crunch, of course) and pop a Rom Com into the DVD player (yes, I’m that old). My go-tos were things like When Harry Met Sally, 10 Things I Hate About You, Notting Hill, and the Princess Bride. Although I still love these movies, they aren’t exactly movies my kids would love (nor would I want them to at this age). I haven’t decided on which movie we will watch this Valentine’s Day, but I’ve narrowed it down to a few great family-friendly options:
The Aristocats
My 2-year-old daughter loves Marie (the girl kitten), but has never seen the movie, so I think we might need to change that this Valentine’s Day. I mean, it’s a cat love story, it totally works for Valentine’s Day.
Lady and the Tramp
If your family is more of a dog family than a cat family, then Lady and the Tramp is a great fit. It would be super fun (and fit the red food theme) to make spaghetti and meatballs for dinner to eat while you watch. All you’d need is an accordion to complete the vibes.
Princess and the Frog
Food also plays a huge role in Princess and the Frog, so this would be a fun animated love story to watch with your kids on Valentine’s Day as you snack on one of the iconic foods from the film – beignets!
Beauty and the Beast
I’m ashamed to say that my kids also have never seen Beauty and the Beast. This animated movie came out right when I was prime Disney movie age, and as such, it’s right up there at the top of my list of favorite childhood movies. Obviously, it’s a love story (albeit a messed-up love story), so it fits the Valentine’s Day theme.
Elemental
This is a newer family movie, but it’s quickly risen in my animated film rankings. A girl made of fire falls for a boy made of water – can they figure out a way to make it work? Spoiler alert: it’s a Disney movie so of course they can!
Heart pizza
Everybody loves pizza, so why not make a heart-shaped pizza one of your easy Valentine’s Day traditions? If you have the time and the desire, you can make one yourself. If you really want to go all out, you can even cut the pepperoni into heart shapes. You’re in luck if homemade pizza isn’t in the cards for you this Valentine’s Day, though. Domino’s will deliver a heart-shaped pizza in 30 minutes, and you can call this tradition done.
Other posts
Did I get you in the Valentine’s Day mood? I’ve got more where this comes from:
I hope I’ve inspired to you adopt a few easy Valentine’s Day traditions to share with your family. What’s your family’s Valentine’s Day tradition? I’d love you to share either down in the comments or over on Instagram @sarainseason.
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