Valentine’s Day Fun Ideas!

Valentine’s

Kids of all ages love to make things with mom or dad. Use your creativity and talent to help them make their own valentines. Take a trip to the craft store and pick out your favorite scraps of lace and ribbons. Check out their fancy paper, sequins, glitter, buttons and stickers for ideas. Don’t forget the hot glue gun. If you are more comfortable in the kitchen, bake some sugar cookies and let the little ones decorate them with icing, sprinkles, candy hearts, red hots, or kisses. Once they are cooled, you can wrap them in colored plastic wrap, tie a little ribbon around the tip and attach a to/from card. The kids can give these out at school as valentines. Click here to buy Valentine Crafts online

Well, there are several “theories” as to the beginning of Valentines day but they all revolve around Saint Valentine. One legend claims that St. Valentine was a priest in Rome. Claudius II, Emperor, decided that married soldiers were not as dedicated to the army as single ones. He then made a law that young men could no longer get married so that his army could be stronger. St. Valentine disobeyed this law and married couples secretly. Once he was caught, Emperor Claudius II had him put to death.
 

Another theory is that St. Valentine was in love with his jailor’s daughter. Before he was put to death, he expressed his love for her in a letter which he signed “Your Valentine”.
 

Maybe his name was not St. Valentine at all. Maybe it was Charles, Duke of Orleans. Which was a Frenchman confined in the Tower of London after the Battle of Agincourt in 1415. He sent rhyming love letters “valentines” to his beloved wife in France during his stay.
 

Yes, Valentine’s Day can be traced back well before the middle ages. During the seventeenth century, people copied poems from booklets to make their own valentines. America would import these booklets from England and copy the appropriate verse onto a gilt-edged letter paper or other decorative sheet. Men would send a verse to his love that addressed his feelings or question of marriage and then the lady would in turn reply with a verse of her choosing.
 

Years later, in 1830, a brilliant Mount Holyoke College student, Miss Esther Howland created the first “American Made” Valentines card after watching her father import valentines every year from England. Miss Howland instead imported fine papers, lace and other supplies to make her valentines. Her annual sales were close to one hundred thousand dollars!
 

Today there are thousands of Valentine card manufacturers around the globe and cards can be found to match every personality and every situation all in a wide price range.
 

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Edible Love

Flowers and Balloons

Other Valentines Gifts