All You Need Is Love
Celebrating Families and Friends, Not Just the Mushy Stuff
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Valentine's Day used to be all about couples showing how much they love each other. But more and more, it's becoming
a holiday about kids, family and
friendship.
Today, a lot of families do Valentine's Day activities together, like going out to dinner and exchanging presents. Most schools make a big deal out of the treats and cards the holiday is known for, too. Some even have parties.
In the past two years, the Web site FamilyFun.com has seen the number of people looking for information on Valentine's Day grow by 40 percent. Mostly, kids and parents want info on easy-to-make cards and classroom gifts.
FamilyFun.com vice president Emily Smith says people start going to the site for Valentine's ideas a month ahead of time.
"For adults, it's all about getting those dinner reservations on the 14th," she said. "With kids, it's the preparation
and the anticipation that's half of the
holiday."
Big companies that make cards and candy also have noticed this change and are making more products aimed at kids. Those little candy hearts used to only have romantic and mushy sayings like "Love You," "Be Mine" and "Kiss Me." But now they have a lot of phrases that kids use more than their parents do. In the past few years, the candy maker Brach's has added "Email Me," "Awesome," "You Rock" and "LOL" to its Conversation Hearts candies.
"It's a celebration of friendship really, now," said Dara Sandland, who helps develop and sell products for Brach's.
Taylor Lambert, a fourth-grader at Hoffman-Boston Elementary School in Arlington, said she thinks Valentine's Day is about being good all around.
"You should care and love and be nice, and you should also think about family members," she said. Not only is Taylor planning to give her mother "lots of kisses," she's also going to include her brother and sister.
"I tell them I love them even though sometimes they bother me," she said.
The industry that makes and sells greeting cards is pretty happy about the way Valentine's Day is changing. It helps sell more cards, and it gets kids interested in getting and giving cards at younger ages. Laurie Henrichsen, who works for a card company called American Greetings, said Valentine's is typically the first experience kids have exchanging cards. She hopes you get into the habit!
Even though you might be most excited about the candy you could get on Valentine's Day, it's actually a much bigger holiday for cards than it is for candy. About 200 million Valentine's cards will be exchanged this year. Only Christmas is bigger. But when it comes to giving candy, Valentine's Day ranks fourth, behind Halloween, Easter and Christmas.
-- Margaret Webb Pressler
